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I hope you're doing really good.
Bye.
Don't waste my time, don't waste my time, don't waste my time
She was mine
Don't waste my time
Don't waste my time
Don't waste my time
Don't let you lie, don't waste my time
Let's go to the sun
We are the universe
It's just me with the emotion
We are the universe
We are the universe
I
This stream contains fast flashing images that may affect viewers who are susceptible
to photosensitive epilepsy and other photosensitivities.
discretion is advised.
Hello everyone and welcome to Champion Shanghai.
the most prestigious event in Valorant is finally here.
And we've got the biggest pre-show ever.
Of course, I'm the bald guy yelling at you.
I'm Golden Boy.
We got Uber.
And we're joined by CN's Echo here in the house.
And we're going to have a good time.
And you probably noticed that we're not in the arena.
Not even close.
Not even close.
We're actually in a different place in Shanghai,
because we're here at the Valorant concept PC
bong.
We partnered with our friends over at Valenciaga.
That's right, that Valenciaga.
You know them.
And look, the brother's trying to get a pair of shoes
You know, I mean it's wild. I mean obviously fashion for me is just insane
I've never thought up something like this and I like the word concept because in concept
This is a PC bung but in reality so much more. Oh, it's a place to get snacks
There's exclusive giveaway stuff you play Valoran in style of course and polts high in with viper being the first digital brand
Ambassador for both the diagram still wrapping
Yes, yeah, I don't really know how that works, but I'm sure our smart mind
How about Ryan, we figured that one out.
Yeah, it's above my pay grade, but thankfully though,
we got someone who knows all about the good stuff here
in Shanghai, in China.
We got Echo here.
How's it feel we're here in your home country?
Are you excited?
I'm super excited.
And the C employers are too, as far as I know.
The international tournament is taking place in Shanghai.
Again, the last one was back in 2024.
That's right.
I mean, it's been a little bit since we've been out here.
And it's nice to be out here.
And this time around, we have so much to show you.
because folks, we got a whole hour of action here
on this pre-show and look folks,
we're just gonna hand it over over at the other crew
because I don't know if you know,
but we got a couple locations going on for this pre-show.
We got Victoria holding things down over at the arena.
What's going on, Vic?
Hey guys, that setup is looking really cool
and this space looks massive.
How big is it?
Yes.
It's really big.
Really big, yeah, it's actually,
there's a lot here.
We're gonna show you a bunch of cool stuff.
Maybe a little reveal later on at the end of the pre-show, you know?
So you might want to stick around because there's a lot of stuff here to check.
You guys have to.
Yeah, you have to.
You're being very test.
You would harm them.
Yeah, Victoria, you need to sit in the chair the whole time.
But out here, though, we're in the pain.
We want the pain to stick around.
No, this place is humongous.
We've got fans already flowing in here.
Yeah, well, I'm expecting a full stadium very shortly.
I think maybe they just need to leave the PC bong that's happening over there.
But thank you guys so much.
I'm here at Victoria, joined by Ender and Wyatt.
It's your first time in Shanghai.
How are you feeling?
I'm so pumped.
I'm not even going to lie.
We got 16 teams here ready to take the stage
for the first time.
We've got fans already entering the building.
This one's going to be so much fun.
Yeah, it's starting to set in.
We were sitting here.
We were waiting for the show to begin.
And now that we're here, now that I'm looking around
and seeing the countdown, I'm seeing all the fans
sitting in the chairs.
It's dawning on me that this is real.
The Champions is about to actually happen tonight.
There's a heartbeat raising already.
It is going up a little bit.
The BPM is increasing slowly.
Well, I'm excited too.
The first match of today is going to be Pay-for-Ex and Team Liquid.
But before any of that, we have all 16 teams here in Shanghai.
And we're going to see every single one of them
over the next four days, which is crazy.
Of course, Masters wasn't like this.
We had to wait a little while into playoffs,
but now we're going to see them all.
This is what I needed.
This is what I needed.
Right, especially because this tournament is,
it's almost a weird one to me.
Because a lot of our first seeds
are coming into success for the first time this year.
think like global East or eSports,
Carmen Club, and then we've got this whole
other group of teams coming in on champs points.
You got G2, you got EDG, you got Paperex,
all teams that historically have done so much damage,
but right now we're coming in as underdogs.
Yep, and just a beautiful reminder
that every single group, four teams,
one from each region.
So it is just cross regional dream and matchup
after dream matchup every single day.
I think the craziest part is,
I think this is the hardest tournament to predict.
Like everyone's tier list is different.
I mean, did you guys have a hard time figuring out, like, guessing?
Yeah.
I mean, at this point, it's literally just guessing.
Because I think half of those teams that came in on champ's points
that have that history are going to bomb out.
And the other half might be in the finals.
Like, you just don't know who it's going to be.
Yeah.
And I think you guys probably have your own interpretations
about what's going to be happening.
So of course, we want you to participate in shot call.
We got 30 minutes to go before you guys can
And this participation is a twitch extension to predict what's going to happen and you can score some more rewards
Did you guys win any of these in the last tournaments? No comment for this one?
I'm definitely winning the hundred percent title. I just think that they're ought to be a zero percent title
Some more flat chatters. That's equally as impressive as a hundred percent. Well, maybe not equally, but I think it might be more impressive
I'm
If someone gets that 100% title, that is almost as prestigious as having the champion's
winner title is when you enter the lobby.
I think we've got to give away a bracelet, not just a 100% banner if you give a 100%.
That might be harder than getting MVP at this tournament.
I'm not going to lie.
I don't even know if any of the players can get 100%, but these are really cool
rewards.
We got like some local references here with like the Harry Crab because we are in Shanghai.
These are awesome.
I definitely, I participated.
You can also participate on your mobile phone.
I didn't know that until recently,
so I got to like put in my pick into my phone.
You can even make a little group and add all your friends.
You have a leaderboard amongst your friends.
That's good.
And if you get that master stone of heaven one,
the gold one, if you're intelligent and get 20% or higher,
and you put that on the champion's bundle
with gold on gold activity, talk clean.
Talk to me, man.
It's as premium as the PC bong over there,
powered by Balenciaga.
So guys, make sure you have your drops enabled
on Twitch so you can score these exclusives
and they are pretty good like we were just talking about.
Now we have so much lined up for you today.
We have a special performance coming up in a little bit
and here's a little teaser of what's ahead.
to celebrate because the brand new game will just release this week.
Guys, we got to talk about gauntlet glitch.
Now, you haven't seen it yet on a pixel hosted
tournament with tens, look big extra and a lot of other big names for this big reveal.
This is going to be so sick, guys.
Yeah, I mean, we're talking to be to be to be to you better get your best
trend and try to frag out here when you queue up.
The coolest thing to me has to be the agents that you can put together.
Everyone's playing a bot.
OK, everyone's on KO quote unquote.
But really you get to choose your abilities put together an amalgamation to make your dream agent. That's just so much fun
Yeah, this game mode looks
Insane you can also pick your abilities like you can customize your ability. So it's not set as normal
So I think it's taking your ability to eat it to the next level
Brand new option has been dropped
See look at the eat it right there. I mean
Yeah, that's justified romance is in the air
This is also really cool because now you can also there's a tournament mode where you can create your own tournament
So you could add this in this glitch mode
Into it so eight teams of duos who would you who be you're doing this game?
I mean, I'm gonna take one of you two. Oh really? Yeah, who's it gonna be fight over me?
You know I'll play with you
That's fine. I'll find my own duo, maybe a golden boy who we'll be talking to again later.
Now, for those of you who want to know a little bit more about Gauntlet Glitch, here's a behind-the-scenes look with some of the devs, so, check it out.
Anything you want to say to players who might not have tried to move yet?
Stay away if you don't like fun.
Okay, don't put that in there.
The idea from Gollick Glitch kind of came from all the player fantasies and things we've
wanted to do with agents in the past and just really couldn't.
So finding a way to kind of have a release valve to be a lot more creative and try the
things that we might try in a prototype, but wanted to try a kind of more competitive
sense, right?
So it's like, what does it look like if we're using three different abilities from
three different agents against other people in like a 2v2 skirmish style?
We got a little team together for our ThunderDome and just kind of dumped it out.
ThunderDome is a three-day lawn hackathon that Riot hosts every year where devs can get together
with their friends and form a team and make a quick game project in under 72 hours.
We were able to put a really fun first playable together and we host a lot of play tests during
that three days leading up before the science fair. It's like a 2v2v2v2 so it's like eight
people, we had APC setup, people were jumping in. A lot of people were like, what the fuck's
going on, I guess. Being able to be creative was like kind of neat for a lot of people.
There was a lot of excitement enjoying, a lot of screaming.
Yeah!
Oh, that was such a shit.
All of us who were on the floor and were play testing knew that there was something
really promising. This was also right around the time that we were working on Skirmish,
right? And so Skirmish was coming out. That was also a 2v2 dual mode and ability
draft almost felt like the next level of that. And they were in the process
prototyping that are ready and you're like oh wow this is this is really awesome.
And a really telling sign was hearing just people on the floor asking about
where they can play the mode. You see people keep play testing it after the
Thunderdome period after the science prayer. You can see dad keeps fixing the bugs after
the Thunderdome as well and that's when you know like oh there's something to chase there.
That's cool, but it's...
Oh!
That was so funny.
I got you.
Shortly thereafter, we had the year planning
for what it is that we were going to do in 2026.
And so, knowing that we had a really promising game mode
and play pattern, and we were going to focus on game modes
this year, we were like, okay, let's do this thing,
and this would probably be the climax
of all the game modes that we were releasing.
The next step challenge for us was how to inject more depth.
It started out with only eight people,
and we went to 18.
So we have like tubey, tubey, tubey, tubey.
But now I think, tubey, tubey, tubey, tubey, tubey, tubey...
So there are 16 players out of them, but not that.
And then the abilities themselves,
you only have like seven abilities per...
I don't think we even had Ultimates, maybe we had Ultimates.
So what if, you know, a wingman is bigger
and with more health, what if a Skydog
actually kills you in one bite?
And we ended up with this-this, um, of, you know,
the crazier branch.
And the list just keep getting longer and longer.
We were like, well, there has to be a systemic wave
where we can put this list of special branch into the game.
And that's when we came up with this idea of glitch as a theme.
There's going to be like two levels, right?
It's like, what can I do that's crazy?
And then when you realize that it's all about the duos.
And like, how do I enable my duo to do something crazy?
What we're really excited to see is people going into like a
theory crafting of figuring out what combinations work really well
and building their own agent and like living up to that fantasy.
I want to see the crazy plays.
I feel like we had a lot of fun internally play testing it,
but our players always surprise us.
Also, like, the players like how messed up the game is.
You know, it's like, yeah, it's like, you know,
do players have other ways they want to be using other abilities
and what are those and how can we help deliver on that?
I see it as almost our love letter
to our Valorant agents and their abilities.
You know, we wanted to provide a way
to experience them to the fullest
and really live up to that fantasy
and I really hope players get to enjoy that.
Play the mode. Tell your friends about it.
Play with your friends, tell your parents, tell everybody.
Just get everybody on to play, golly glitched, please,
so we can keep working on it.
We'd love to make more for the mode.
All right, folks, we're back here yet again
at the Valorant Concept PC, Bong,
and we're actually hanging out at the Valorant Mobile booth.
That's right, folks.
I don't know if you know this, but up here in China,
they got themselves Valorant Mobile,
and it's a pretty darn good game.
But wait a minute, there's more.
Because who's next to us here?
If not, but Sasi and Tens joining us today.
Fellas, pleasure to have you here.
What's it like being a Shanghai man?
Oh, it's amazing.
It's my first time here.
Everyone's written so, so well.
I love the food, especially.
Yeah, I'm so happy.
Awesome.
How are you funny?
Man, the food is amazing.
The city's awesome.
Like, this is actually one of the coolest cities
in the world, so I'm just glad to be here.
Somewhere out there, Mimi's dying
because you guys talked about the food.
No, of course so folks,
there's a lot going on over here
and we have so much happening at the PC Bond.
You know, you guys having such prolific careers,
have you guys ever had an opportunity
to compete out here in China?
No, actually no.
How would you think that would have done?
I mean, if you keep asking me that, look at that, bro.
I'm trying.
Yo, chat, I'm trying to get him back over here,
but he ain't doing it.
Unbelievable.
What about for you?
Look, the hype here is so big as well.
Like, you can only imagine,
how he's over to the events out here in China.
Yeah, I really would have liked to play
in front of a Chinese crowd when I was a player, so.
So, you really need him to answer that, too.
Okay, all I'm saying is we're poking, we're prodding, we might get them.
Hey, listen, there's going to be more Valor next season, you know what I'm saying, Boppy.
But listen, there's a lot going on over here.
Overall though, if you had to pick as far as just teams look out for,
what are you most excited for when it comes to this tournament?
Both of you, if you guys mind.
I mean, for me, of course, loud, right?
Because I won champs a lot, and now I want to see the kids playing.
It's going to be their first experience.
So yeah, I'm really excited for the match, loud against EUG.
I think it's not gonna be here.
I'm betraying America's Foley. I've switched over to Pacific.
Oh dear. Okay.
So T1 all the way and PaperX.
T1 all the way and PaperX. I respect it.
This guy just a turncoat over here. Unbelievable.
But folks here, look, there's a lot going on over here in Shanghai.
Valorant has completely taken over the city.
And there's one landmark that you folks can't miss
because there's a giant statue of Sage?
Yeah, it's massive. It's in the Chantung Leisure Park, and it's going to be there for the entirety of champions.
It is a 10 meter tall statue that lights up during the night.
So make sure you get out there and check it out.
It's not just the Sage statue. There's a bunch of fantastic work out there.
Obviously, exactly showcasing some fantastic stuff out of the Valorant game.
So get down there and check it out.
Yeah, there's turrets there. The rays sort of showstopper in statues.
It's insane.
It's a spectacle. You absolutely have to go down there and check it out.
That is unbelievable stuff. You don't want to miss that one, of course, folks.
Massive statue. Pretty much, you know, if you're a sage main, I think this is the place for you to chill.
Right? Yes, you can go there and offer your tribute and hope you get some healing.
Yeah, pretty much.
All right, folks. But, you know, the thing is you can get your very own sage statue.
I'll be a little bit smaller.
Thanks to our friends over at PopMart because we have these new Valorant blind boxes which are available now.
So we actually had a couple of our friends open up a couple of those boxes, cracked a couple of bad boys open.
And a Marnium.
Yeah, let's see what they got because I hope they got a couple good pulls.
Hey, I'm Mel. I'm joined here by Spicey and Lou and we're going to be checking out the PopMart Valorant collaboration here at the first chance venue in Shanghai.
I feel like I have something. Do you want to trade?
Yes, yes, of course. Of course, of course.
I'm a good smile, okay
You can go first, right?
Should I?
I feel like I'm a kid again
How is it sounding like a viper?
Oh, exactly with a viper
I'm kidding, killjoy
What is it?
Stop it!
It's like my mind ball
I've been playing her since the beginning
Okay, so I'll go
Women
Even my hair is blue
It has to be over
What is it sounding like?
It's not bold, I don't think.
I don't know what's going on here.
That's about a mystery around them.
Let's see.
Oh, I see a blue, like, jet?
It's a jet!
Oh, that's it.
Jet's a good one.
I'm not gonna lie.
I think a lot of people would want jet.
Yeah.
I mean, listen, I will not.
It's like an old agent.
I'm happy.
Okay, I mean, I'll take anything.
Oh!
Okay, now you go.
Please give me Omen.
It feels like that was bountiful.
A lot just came out.
Sounds heavy.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
Oh my god, oh my god.
Actually, no way.
This one is the heaviest.
Okay, here we go.
Oh!
I actually got it!
Wait, isn't that 1?
That's 144.
Oh my god, wait, I think he's...
No!
We actually got the wrong one.
That's insane.
Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo.
Bro, this is insane.
I am delighted.
Turn it off one more.
I'm down.
Yes!
All I'm saying is, why don't I ever have that kind of love with the blind
boxes?
into a proper little collector under she's getting into like card gaming on the side with Riftbound so this is just right up her alley
And it's Omen and it's one of the special edition ones. So yeah, I think that reaction was definitely genuine
Yeah, well, it's by the way speaking of getting into some new games here echo
You saw you throw down some valor mobile just a second ago. How was it? It was really hard for me
Okay, I gotta give this one a whirl myself because I'm a bit of a mobile gaming aficionado you two
So of course, folks, this site is just one of the many valourant takeovers that's happening
all over this city.
We've got an artist Allie near the arena.
It looks awesome.
We have a bunch of our friends over there covering the action.
So let's see what's going on.
We've got the crew standing by.
Let's see what's on display.
Hello guys.
I'm Lou, and I'm delighted to be here at VALORANT Champions, artist Allie in Shanghai.
And of course, I'm not alone with beautiful ladies.
Mel, Lisa and Spicy here with me today because we're going to do one of ladies' favorite
thing, spending money on Valorant goods.
Mel, you're excited about it, but aren't you a bit broke from what I heard already?
What you heard, you were a witness, you were there.
I have no more money after coming to Schoen.
I'm buying so much clothes, I'm not going to lie.
It's my bank account, it's already low, but I'll find a way.
You're going to buy even more now.
Oh yeah, I mean, it's a Valorant, like pop up, like we're going to have to.
We'll find a way, of course.
Spicey, what are you the most excited about this artist alley here?
Anything that's cypher, omen and fate, I'm buying.
Like, I'm just buying, I'm not going to check the price, I'm just...
Wow, so we're going to have big spenders here Lisa.
It's a pleasure to have you here of course and to have us.
Thank you for having us here in Shanghai. Shall we go?
Yeah, of course, I can't wait. So, let's go.
I am so envious that I'm not there spending my good money
on all the goods over there.
The Pop Mart stuff.
They're getting over at Artist Alley.
I'm so jealous, but you know what?
We have some banger matches today,
especially the first one.
So we want to know what your picks are for today's opening
match.
We have our MasterCard fan poll.
Are you guys pulling for Team Liquid or Paper Rex?
Scan the QR code very shortly.
There it is.
And cast your votes.
OK, do you think the team of 10 sages
or the 10 Vipers wins?
That's the vote that I meant to shoot in, right?
matchup of the ancients, Sage definitely wins that action.
Yeah, because that's actually 20 sages because they can all revive each other.
They can raise each other, they can heal each other, that's kind of broken actually.
Well, if you guys want to share your thoughts on the 10 team of either, remember to use our hashtags on the broadcast so we can feature all your answers here.
It's hashtag VCT and hashtag Valorant Champions.
Now, we have a very special performance for you guys.
You saw the teaser earlier from master
when he is legendary here, especially on social media.
So let's see his full song.
["Sing Me a Song"]
All I see is your, it's the sunrise tonight
And the world that's on my mind
Is not the end
In the darkness
All I see is your, it's the sunrise tonight
All right, like we said there is a lot going on here at the Valorant concept PC
bong in partnership with our friends at the Linciaga. You know there's a little
bar over here too. Actually I got us some drinks. Oh yeah I got I don't worry I
got you covered. There you go you know a little delicious bevy to kind of you
know keep things going. I told the team that I wasn't gonna have some drinks
but it's just a Coca Cola. That being said though we're here hanging out
it's a good time. Now Echo I want to ask you a question because you know
This game has really blown up out here in China.
Why is that? What happened?
Like, because I know after Shanghai Masters 2024,
this game just went off the roof.
Yeah, because, you know, this year we have the road show,
you know, and it's just blowing up,
especially the Gen Z people.
All of this game's so bad.
Mmm.
I like that, and that was quite young to me myself.
But over, you know, we were out here in 24.
It's only gotten bigger.
Now it's like, we got this whole PC bomb situation going on.
think it's really basically impossible to overstate the scale of this event out here in China. We've
been around the world doing this for quite some time, especially for VCT, but people are everywhere.
We know the venue is already starting to fill up. It's sold out in literally a second. All the
days, all the tickets sold out. So the hype is real and there's a lot of belief as well. I think
for a team from VCT China to step up, especially with teams like Tyloo having just one out there
in stage two, there's a ton of hype around that young blood and you know old faces like
So far on a new roster looking to have a wish for glory. Oh, yeah, who's the hype team coming into this one for the Chinese fans?
I think
Edg
We gotta ask some people around here what they think who's they think is gonna win, you know is the edg is it excellent?
What about you?
Okay, come over here come over
All right, let's what's your name?
So who do you want to win?
Tian Lu!
He's so good!
Tian is Tian Lu Tian!
Which player do you like the most?
Slowly.
You like slowly.
Tell me the reason.
Umm...
It's definitely...
the team.
The whole team.
He said slowly is to be the team that we're thinking.
Okay.
Okay, alright.
So he's got his favorite.
Alright, it works out over here.
I like this guy.
We're gonna hang out.
He's gonna buy me a drink.
Alright, folks.
Now let's go ahead and send it back over to the artist Ali.
We got the gang.
Checking out all the good stuff happened on the other side.
of the city all right it's your turn now I know you've been broke right but I
still see you in this community art area so what's been the most interesting for
you until now so I have two cats and I play Omen so I found an art of Omen as a
cat and it's a mouse pad I don't use this for my actual mouse but my cats
love using my mouse pad as their scratching post so I'm gonna put this
out as a decoy for them wow that's pretty cool
Looking about pretty cool with some of the fleshy
Oh my god
Yeah, of course, sure, this is like iconic in China
So let's go
Let's go
Let's see what we're getting
What do you want?
Uh, neon maybe?
Neon? What do you want?
I'll take Jet
Jet?
I want Neon
You want Neon? I want Klopp
I am so glad
What did you get?
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, I got to join.
And the blue hair.
Yes, exactly.
That's so cool.
That's so cool.
Girls, should we move on?
I have something interesting to show you.
Come here.
I want to know what Lou is going to show, though.
Yeah, wait, they're just going to leave us hanging like that?
How could you do that?
All right, we've got to get down to business,
so we've got a match coming up.
There are two names. You guys are all familiar with this paper X versus team liquid. They've been to many global events. Yeah, I mean that these these guys have been at it for a long time and yet have only ever faced off twice against each other. But looking at it's kind of opposite trajectories for these two teams, particularly with paper X being that second place finish at both M one and M two but qualifying here to champs just on points alone. Yeah. And at the same time or rather on the office aside for team liquid.
They are trying to kind of go past this barrier
that they've been at in the group stages.
And it is a shame that we've only seen this two times.
It's crazy that Nats against the core of PaperX,
the actual legends of the game
from their respective regions,
that is a sick matchup one we deserve to see more often.
So I'm glad we're getting that today.
Yeah, we're gonna have the third time matchup
happening today.
Now, if you guys don't remember how this year,
when it was pretty good for PaperX finishing second
or runner up at both Masters London
earlier at Masters Santiago but there's one last trophy they haven't earned yet
in this long list of accolades and it's a champ's trophy. Yeah this team is always
in that final picture whether it's top two top three top four but a champ's
trophy has always eluded them. Of course Toronto they finally did their first
global trophy but this one's a different story and yet they come into
this tournament in a very different position now it's it's been a thing in
in the past, or Paper X maybe aren't coming in as the victors of the region, but still
excel, but this is the lowest they have ever placed leading in to a global event.
Yeah, they were the first team that qualified via champ's points, but they had that early
exit in Pacific playoffs.
I think there's something to be said about the two second places this year in that
they have displayed the consistency, but have met teams in the finals that are
on an insane white hot streak in Longship and then in Levy at Tonne.
In Paper Rex now at Champs, the biggest tournament of the year, find that gear within themselves,
being able to kick it into overdrive to actually lift the Strophe.
What's really impressive is Paper Rex is one of the, if not the only team who's really
kept the core of this roster since the very beginning.
So they are vying for the Strophe.
And when you think about the teams that they lost to earlier in this year, those
were fresh upstarts, right, Nongshim, then Leviton, brand new teams.
Now today they're facing off against a team liquid with the gnats still on the roster.
It's a very different story.
They're going up against the Trident Troop for the most part.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, they beat PaperX once, but it was a different team liquid back then.
And they missed out on Masters Monday.
They've had so many roster changes, you know, over the past couple of years, including
this year, but they did have a strong finish in stage two over in EMEA.
Yeah, coming all the way into the end.
Liquid went on kind of a fun little tear, of course, to end up qualifying.
But they come back to a global where they have this shadow hanging over them.
The last four globals they have played, it's been a one to finish, unable to advance out of groups.
And now they're coming into a group where, okay, there's some teams that have maybe
showed a little weaker in stage two, but this is a hard group by all accounts.
Absolutely. I think the thing as well that kind of drives me nuts,
thinking about their one is your group stages.
Is that the one is always really impressive.
They make you believe and then they come up just short.
But over the course of this year,
they have put together a nasty five man team
still having that core of, you know, camo,
gnats and then you add treks into that.
Like they've put together something powerful.
Definitely and they've been picked up kicks.
The last time we saw him
was when he was playing with Vitality.
So this is looking like a pretty solid roster here.
Of course, we do have to touch upon the additional roster
change right before coming into champions.
Yeah, I mean, the GSR move took everyone by surprise, right?
This has been a kid that was playing back
with that Liquid Academy system for quite some time,
but now is going to have to come to the global stage
for the first time to play with this team.
That's a huge move.
Oh, yeah, it is enormous.
And before we dive any deeper into this,
I think it's time for a snack break.
Two got spicy food and spicy questions.
And we got spicy you along with two fat,
DCK and a few other faces you might recognize
at everyone's favorite, Heidi Lau.
Wait, what's happening?
Oh, that's my wingman.
Bro, this is me when I'm fighting a war on insight
and my wingman is just doing this, bro.
Oh, wow.
This is gonna go to Sasi.
Who is the most intimidating IGL?
Probably Eaton.
Two times winner, and he's a rat, you know what I mean?
Too fat, are you scared of Ethan?
Oh, bye bye, girls.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Who is going spicy first?
I already threw in some mushrooms, girl.
Okay, whoever eats something from the best bowl
gets to choose who this question goes to.
Ooh!
Tyson, who is the worst region in 2026?
It's a pretty spicy question.
I mean it's a spicy one.
Whoa whoa whoa!
No no no no no no no!
That's my opinion.
What would you say, what would you say?
I want a professional.
Okay, three to one. You go at three to one, you say both.
Three, two, one.
How do you cook the egg? Do you just put it inside and drop it?
You drop it, forget it, and then when you come back to the broth, you take a surprise.
There's nothing wrong with that.
First team then sent home, and I'm picking someone that picked me.
You're using 100% of the brain, are you?
Maybe you should answer the question.
Okay.
That was both of you.
Okay, three, two, one.
G2.
Oh!
NRG?
I was going for G2 as well.
I'm shocked at both.
I'm about to throw the meat.
I'm going to show you how to do it.
Okay, this is a small fry, but you could go...
No!
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
No, cut, cut, cut, cut!
Hot buds, I didn't need a wild here.
What's the best region in 2026?
I mean, I'm biased. I'm gonna stay in America.
Oh, please, oh.
Love you, though.
Pacific all the way.
Yeah, man.
Guys, where is my egg?
I ate it.
Who is winning chance?
Sassy.
Loud.
True fat.
Tile.
TCK.
That's loud.
Teeble.
How loud?
I'm joking, bro.
I'm joking, bro.
All right, well, look, folks.
There's one thing I know.
know his body's been built by Heidi Laugh, you know what I'm saying, puppy, uh, yeah,
they look like they had a good time over there.
Yeah, it's awesome. Heidi Laugh is collaborating with Valorant and stores across China. We're
looking at store takeovers, set meals and merch. You never leave Heidi Laugh with empty
handed. There's always like a little bag to take with you. So it's well worth checking
out if you are here. Really cool thing. Obviously they didn't realize that noodle
dance is iconic.
Yeah, the noodle dance is cool, man. I love that. That was awesome. But we got
a lot of cool things going on here too, just like the vault, which Echo, what's
going on over here?
It's like basically you can DIY your own keychain.
Yeah, there is like five keycaps.
It's like a little citrus thing too.
Yeah, and there are two caps also.
So, you know, there's a volumint logo, the letters,
you know, the agency, so whatever you want.
You can just do it comfortably.
We gotta be careful.
We don't do it.
He's gonna take me out, you know?
So, what do they have going on over here?
Is it been a lot of people coming in,
you know, making their keychains?
A lot of people come here to do these kind of things.
They hang them up, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, she said a lot of people love this.
Yeah, dangerous.
I always fit it with these incessantly when I have them.
It's super addictive, right?
Now what's up, bro?
What's up, bro?
Can I take a picture?
You won't be able to put it down, man.
Listen, sunglasses said I could take it.
All right, so I'm taking it.
All right, here we go.
Sick.
Well, folks, it's obviously a good time out here.
And we have so many things that are happening.
I can't stop pressing the button.
I'm sorry, this is great.
Yeah, I know.
And I done did wrong but in any case so folks the thing that you want more importantly after an intense gaming session
You need a good coffee, right?
So we've got you covered out here in Shanghai because dough has champs fashion for sale
And you can sample their coffee to boot in this awesome collab when you go ahead and check it out with Mel TCK and
Souffat bidet
Yo, hello. What's up?
Woo!
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
Nice.
Welcome to Shanghai.
Thank you.
I heard they have the Ballerin team called for you.
Is that it?
Yes.
You guys want me to make it run for you?
Really?
Yes.
Let's go.
Let's go.
Hi.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
I think for me, in front of the home ground, it's more confident for me, but the most
important part is I'm so excited to play on the stage and show myself to the world you know.
Okay so you're doing the IGL now for Nailu so Mel definitely has been those difficult moments
big tournaments bought as an IGL as well if you had advice for him if the experience you already
have what would be? Keep then what you're doing is the only advice. Yeah thank you. We wish you
best of luck in champions and we prepared something woman though Juni
how you oh I don't know if I can do it
Juni how you in oh my god
okay looks good that looks good right can you play with long sleeves or no
Because I can't, like, I can't.
I can't, right?
I can't.
It's impossible to aim.
Oh, it's bad.
I can't.
Please, don't touch this one.
That's going to look like a help.
Oh, look at the inside.
Oh, my God.
I just saw him now.
Oh.
That's crazy, yeah.
Is it perfect or no?
Yeah, he's perfect.
I'm going to hold the mic.
Okay.
Okay.
Because it came time.
not only can see fat help IGL his team to chance, he can also make coffee really well.
Now welcome back to the Jing on Arena, he is and the stadium is starting to fill up behind us
and the players are starting to get ready. One of those teams is Paper Rex.
Now at the center of this team is a player we all know and a lot of us love is Forsaken.
He was awarded the MVP bracelet the very first time they won their very first international trophy in Toronto.
at that tournament he was incredible specifically it was the grand final where he put on an all-time
or performance to finally break through that glass ceiling for paper X get them that first
trophy deserve that bracelet he's flexing on him I was seeing him in the team all the time there
he was shredded it was out of control recently though the form has been shaky he's known for
playing a lot of agents obviously but for sure points almost feels like maybe
too many and he needs to dial back in on that comfort he needs to hit that peak
again if paper X want to make it to another grand final and win that
champions trophy yeah paper X way right yes that's right he's officially played
every single agent as of stage two insane insane like this is a
ridiculous number to have but of course like for second you know that he's
just a beast when it comes to those global events and paper X is a team
They always tend to elevate once they make it to that global stage
There's a reason that they're always finding themselves finishing in the top four events and so much of it is the work
That the man on the screen you can do. Yeah, definitely. I think we're gonna need him to really show up
I think you know compared to his teammates
We didn't see that kind of explosiveness and the heros that we saw last year over in Toronto
So I I do wonder if we're gonna see more of that
He is sort of been credited with a lot of the creativity and the ideas that this team likes to bring out
And you have a situation for paper X now coming to this tournament where you have this extended break because they went out earlier in playoffs
And also they knew that they were the first team to qualify to champion so that there's ever a time to start working on changing around
Some agents in the pool if you want to sort of add some more depth to a bis that came in very late into that playoffs picture on a map like that
You had that time for paper X. They were blessed with that now there is a player
He was not part of the squad when they carry their first trophy. It is in the he's joined this roster since and they are still gunning for that
So this is his second champs, but I don't think they love their Paris run as much
So I know they definitely want to have that deep run in this tournament
But Yoru is a meta that we are also looking at for me
I'm really looking at something Yoru is just back into the fold
It is official the non-mirror win rate is hitting a peak this year in stage two
And that's just based on late stage to getting that buff with the teleport has the additional time
Something has gotten better and better at you as the year has gone on and with the agent back with it relevant in the meta
And him peaking on it
I could be the recipe for paper X having a star to take them to the top first year
I think you're such a relevant champion for something as well because I think like sometimes when you would look at like
potential weaknesses of Payprex is when something is playing agents where he's
supposed to be in more of a supportive role, but he still just wants to fight fight
fight early on and yet his utility is good. What agent does it better than
your having the flashes to set up for fights but also having the teleport to
allow you to take an opener and yet still get out? The fact that he is
elevating his play on that agent now at such a critical juncture in the
road is great news for Payprex. Absolutely and it's great to see him
for more AWPing. His AWP is phenomenal. You have a modern agent where he is enabled with that to the maximum.
You prefer the Yoru up to the Gekko up? Yeah, slightly. Marginally better than the Gekko up, yeah.
But he's so good at both of them! Now there's another player on the team who's also really good on the AWP, and that's the veteran, Divai.
Mika Babs caught up with him ahead of his return to champs.
I'm here right now with the vibe of Paper Rex, the vibe everybody is wondering if Paper
Rex can finally do it this time.
How has the team learned how to cope with the pressure, especially externally, and especially
stepping back onto the champ stage?
I think when it comes to pressure, maybe we kind of like double a sword.
I mean, we have a lot of experience for land events and stuff.
But at the same time, we try to remind ourselves that always go with the newbie mindset,
like rookie mindset so game by game and hopefully this time I think we have a
little bit of like time this time and hopefully we're able to show you in the
server today so well looking forward to the rookies paper X on that stage day
yeah good to hear from DeVy coming back to champs to 2020s I just got trapped
in perma what face oh man okay well we're here this is cool this is this
This is nice. I just got put into the matrix a little bit and this is our control center.
For me it's like a very jazzed out futuristic photo booth. We've already been testing out
a little bit here. Very much in keeping with the theme here of course that I've had a concept
piece of art.
Echo, do you think I have a face for these cameras?
You look so cool.
Oh thank you so much.
Oh my god.
I would not have hit you with that answer. I would have said hi to the radio.
Yeah, that's why I didn't ask you and I asked her because she's a sweetheart.
Okay, unbelievable.
But in any case, folks, lots of stuff going on over here.
As you all know, I mean, we got the bunch of activations happening over here.
We have another thing that we're going to be revealing in a little bit,
so you might want to stick around for that one.
But also the Artist Alley.
So much going on over there.
Let's send it back over to Gang to see what's going on at the Artist Alley.
And at the Artist Alley there is not only shopping, there are also artists and pieces
of art, so out of Suka's work, especially for the episodes that we love in Valorant,
which one is your favorite, Lisa?
Oh my God, it's a very difficult choice, but out of all of those, I would pick, of course,
Viper, you know.
I can choose.
Viper is the mummy, you know.
Sorry, sorry.
Viper, the mummy of Valorant, let's see what's next.
Because I see that Spicy is waiting for me here for some more art.
Can you tell me what's going on here?
This is like Succos art and this is specifically for chance and it looks freaking amazing.
Like I need this in my home.
Can I tonight?
Yeah, I think you can actually buy the posters and I think that's a pretty good
one all of farming right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you see what I mean.
Let's go Mel, Mel, Mel.
I see you captivated by something.
What's going on here?
is still Sukka's work, but is that agents?
Yes, they actually did the key art that everyone recognizes
and I think it's really cool how you can see the process
that they went through, going from the sketches
to what we know today.
You kind of get a glimpse into the behind the scenes.
I think it's really cool.
Okay, who's your favorite else of this board?
Don't say Klove, please.
I know she's Klove, but.
It's Klove, and I see that as an Omen player,
so that says a lot that I'm willing
to seed ground on that.
Shall we get back to some more shopping?
Let's get it.
Well, it's looking real hot across Shanghai,
but we have some hot topics here, especially about Team Liquid.
They made a huge change coming to chance.
We touched upon this earlier, and it's
that they have Bench Purple who helped qualify them
to this tournament, and now they
have GSR coming in from Team Liquid Academy.
I mean, why would they do this?
It's so risky.
I mean, I think Team Liquid, they're
hoping to get a little bit of injection of life here
in such a stacked tournament, trying to make a change
and promoting someone from within.
With GSR, it's been with the organization
for a couple of years now.
Now, that being said, I think the big difference here
in gameplay is going to be the agent pool.
While Perpo has played a lot of agents historically,
recently it is all a jet all the time.
And I think we get with GSR as maybe a more well-rounded
player and someone that is historically very strong on the order that's really my
question though our team liquid going to try to go away from the you know they're
read on the meta that they just hard-force on every single map which is
double dualists running a jet all the time do they try to reinvent themselves
along with adding into the team or they just hoping this guy's just got sick
firepower one-for-one throw I mean let's see if we can't just get a guy
that's gonna get us more kills that's a thing because GSR actually was
originally a jet one trick way back in the day, of course, started playing a lot
more things. He actually told this story about how when he was 14 years old, he
met Kupert, a fellow Serbian professional player in rank, who told him that he
should expand his age pool, stopping a one trick, play initiator, get in on that
level. That's what GSR started doing. Eventually, joined Team Liquid Academy
with Kupert would go on to play. He's got like treks on this team as well, but
I think for GSR I do think a big reason here is going to be the difference of agents when you look at how team liquid
Have been playing with the jet and the cipher so much of those two agents
I think they've skewed really heavily onto the defense side the defense is where they've been strong
You look at purpose stats as well much stronger on the defense side
Then he is on attack and that makes sense when you're playing it jet one of the stronger off agents in the game
But maybe weaker when it comes to entries next to something like a waylay or a neon and I'm hoping that the
flexibility that GSR is going to give the team will allow them to hit their
comps a little bit. Yeah listen I wouldn't be mad at seeing Team Liquid go a
little bit more in the neon direction having GSR run that. But Purple he was
also a flexible guy and they just wanted him to dial in on that jet. I think
they could go either way to me it kind of feels like 50-50 where do they
want to take it but they've just had consistent success so maybe they just
stick to the same thing.
And it's just a straight up man we wanted, firepower.
A little bit off grade there.
Perpo didn't have a great grand finals.
They feel like maybe GSR, if he's in this spot,
he's a hungry player.
He's got a lot of raw talent.
Maybe he can take him to the next level.
And I think it's important to say that GSR
isn't just some kid that came out of nowhere.
He turned 18 in August, so becoming eligible to play.
But even then, he's been with Team Liquid Academy
since 2025.
He played back in the day with kicks on Academy.
He's a longtime duo partner of Nats.
And as recent as the playoffs run,
he was in Berlin with Team Liquid,
watching them play, getting ingrained in the system.
So it's not some kid that joined out of the blue.
It is someone that Team Liquid built
their Academy program around
and are hoping is gonna step up here on the big stage.
That's right, this is his first international,
but he's been practicing with them all this while
and Liquid surely would not make this change
unless you were confident that this was the right move.
Now, you were talking about liquid performance
throughout EMEA.
And if you look at this, it's actually quite incredible.
This is one of the few teams that could actually
beat the Challenger's teams coming in during plans.
Yeah, whether it's the experienced teams
or the Challenger's teams that were hungry,
chip on their shoulder, firing on all cylinders,
young talented players like Kachar, et cetera.
Team Liquid were able to handle all comers
in that lower bracket to make it to champs,
which is, I think, a testament to both the individual player
form that they were in to match up against the young talent,
but also the ability to rely on the experience
that the core has.
Nats, obviously, competing forever.
Trex has had a load of experience at this point.
Camo, as well.
So it feels like the player form,
it was peaking at the right time.
And they have the experience where
they were one of the only teams that could actually
deal with those great new players.
Yeah.
And I feel like it's almost ironic that we went through EMEA
And everyone thought EUNA is going to be the region
that one of these challenger teams
is actually going to punch its ticket all the way to champs.
And they nearly did, had Team Liquid not
stopped them in their tracks.
And I don't know, maybe Team Liquid saw the success
of all the challenger's teams and were like,
we need one of those.
And that's why GSR got the promotion.
Maybe.
There's a lot of strength there.
In fact, listen back to MikaFabs
in here from the IGL Nats.
And some of his thoughts on all of this.
Hey, guys, MikaFabs here.
and I'm with Nats of Team Liquid back on the global stage.
So I think one thing that we want to know
is what do you think is missing from Team Liquid
that can push the team to claim that trophy
so that it's not like you guys are almost there.
What is missing that the team needs
in order to become champions?
I think it's something more unique
to come to the international stage.
I think all of the international stage,
we're doing the same things
that we come from our own region.
And this time we come with a different player.
So let's see how it goes.
All right, excited to see it, excited to see that unique mess on the stage.
Minutes and you already have stuff in your basket, what's that?
It's a squishy.
This is a more squishy?
And this is the bear.
And the ice comes out, so you have to capture this.
Wow, but do you really need both?
Are you like a rager in ranked and stuff?
I tend to rager a lot.
I tend to slam my desk a lot and I've broken a few miles, so
Hopefully this would save me. I'm sure it would. Look at it. Wow, which rank are you right now?
Okay, squishing squishing again. Yeah, we don't need to know. Yeah, let's go. Let's go check what the others call. Let's go
All right folks we're back here at the Valorant content PC bang and we're joined by a fan echo. Who do we have here?
Hello everyone, I'm just a little nurse, however you want.
You can speak Mandarin, English, whatever you want buddy, it's all good.
Echo here to translate.
My last name is Zhang, and I'm from China, I'm 25 years old.
Heck yeah, alright, so you play Valorant, who's your main?
What kind of hero do you want to play?
Which kind of hero do you prefer?
Clothes.
Clothes.
Alright, cool.
Alright, see, this is a solo player in rank, just insolocking clove and just going for it.
I respect it, I like it.
Of course, so much going on over here, but I wanted to ask you, this is a tough question.
Which non-Chinese team are you rooting for here at Champion Shanghai?
You called it, you called it, she's, your wizard, Echo, I don't know how you do
it.
He told me! He told me! He told me! That was T1! I have no idea!
Awesome stuff there.
Yeah, actually, I was just a little nervous, but I didn't laugh.
He was just nervous, and he told me the wrong answer.
Come on!
T1 was heartbroken.
Well, thank you so much for joining us. The fans here have been incredible.
It's been awesome to meet everyone, and we got so much going on.
We've shown you the Artist Alley a couple of times.
We've shown you all the different activations that are happening here as well.
Well, and we still have one more surprise for you at the end, but for now listen it back over to the homies at the desk
Which guys got going on for us?
We got lots of stuff going on here. I can't wait to see what this last surprise is gonna be
But talking about dark horse picks or non-china picks
I want to know what you guys think coming into this tournament paper X is obviously one of the favorites one of the
Stronger teams who are your dark horse picks for this tournament? Maybe let's start with you
Yeah, me first my dark horse pick. I am going with loud. I think they are incredible. They're peaking at the right time. Okay have multiple players that can take over the game. They have one of the best neons in this tournament during a neon that they have the ability to play your if they want because evidently
show is phenomenal on that agent.
If they want to lean into that,
they have a flexible guy like
darker who could pick up the Sentinel.
I think these guys have options.
They have firepower and they have
a fantastic IGL in the air day,
who's absolutely taken our America
scene by storm.
I think they have so many factors
going for them that they can thrive
on this stage environment.
You know, before I reveal what
our dark horse pick is,
what do you think of his?
No, I think this guy knows ball.
Unfortunately, that's like the number
two dark horse pick.
It's a great choice. Don't get me wrong, but the real choice out there for all our knowers, and this might be controversial because my dark horse is a number one seed.
Okay, that's correct.
But we got to go.
Tyloo, my justification, why they're a dark horse is because everyone underage China coming in to a global event.
But Tyloo are the truth.
Listen to me.
Trust me on this, right?
Because I feel like Tyloo have all the firepower that makes for a great team, but they have the depth, right?
they have that team play that sometimes you're missing.
But if everyone remembers that Wolves won third seed going
into Masters Toronto last year,
who was leading the team?
SuFatBB, they came in with such a great understanding
of how to play the macro game
with these slow controlled well thought three rounds.
And now with Tyloo,
you still have that same style of calling with SuFatBB,
but you're led by two of the most cracked out boolists
on the planet right now,
Splash and slowly just dominated
inversely every single stats category in China and ready to do it here on the global stage.
I love that. Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it.
Tyloo, a dark horse pick. I think Laude is a good shout. I think...
Oh, thanks for the little consolation. No, I think they're great too.
Also, we're in China. Look, Laude couldn't win back in Brazil. They got second place.
Come on.
It was an OT map five barely, and that made them even hungrier that they couldn't...
Okay, wait, wait, wait, this is going to be almost up.
Wait a second.
This is a psychological factor.
No, time for a great pick though.
I think that's like a masterclass in long term roster
building, honestly, what they've put together.
So I'm not mad at that either.
They'd be up there in my Dark Horse 2 list.
Spectacross the board.
They're definitely going to get the hometown buff,
but loud, you know, they're all so young.
I think we saw Lev on the global stage do really well.
Even though they're young, a lot of them
are new today.
Exactly.
They're these teammates from Lev Academy.
Interesting.
They came up together.
Another point towards Lev, potentially.
This guy just keeps doing getting points.
I don't know how the point system works, but I need some.
OK, we'll work on it while we toss it back over to the artist
alley, you see what the ladies are doing.
Oh my god.
Oh my god, Lou.
I cannot take my eyes off you.
What do we think, girl?
What do you think, girls?
Give us a 360.
Oh my god.
I even noticed that characters in the back, that's Valorant in Chinese,
which you're sick!
Yeah, I love it actually,
Spicey, what's your favorite part about the jacket?
You are my favorite part of the jacket.
Oh my god, again, this looks freaking amazing.
If you're not getting it, I'll get it for you.
Wow, and you're spoiling me as well, girls.
I feel like we've spent quite a lot of money here today.
The artist Ali already,
that's the signature piece of merch of Valorant Chance.
Shanghai, thank you so much for coming with me
for that shopping session, and we'll see you there.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
Kbrecht.
Kbrecht are back-to-back runners of the last global event this year.
I thought people were being kind of doomer about PaperX right now.
No?
Is that a Victoria?
I think they're a little bit, it's almost like no one's even talking about them because
they weren't in Busan.
So I do understand them not making to a Grand Finals or Pacific.
PaperX might just be the real dark horse.
I mean, yeah, honestly, they could be.
They are their own worst enemies.
They've often said it themselves and we've seen it and we've witnessed it and the worst part is when they played against team liquid the last two times
It was probably one of the most stressful matches to watch as a paper X fan. We saw the 11 one near reverse sweep
We did see a reverse sweep over on split last time they played it was very stressful now
Let's take a look at predictions. I don't know what your predictions are for today. Well, we might find out
Yeah, I think we're about to find out the gold power rankings
Powered by AWS and let's see what we got. The only one with liquid time to either look like a genius or an idiot
Predictions are a higher percentage voting for paper X. Yes, even the fans were yeah, that's crazy. I mean I listen
I did you pick liquid because I think liquid are coming into this with a very consistent base
I know what I'm getting from them on a foundational level and
And I've seen GSR play like them, but okay.
If I believe in their reasoning for getting him,
if it is, this guy's going to come in,
we are slotting him in one time,
jet one trick to just appear with a ton of firepower,
slot him into the system.
I think that that could work.
I know the foundation.
Paper X, it's chaos, I don't know what I'm getting from him.
Yeah, Catapult, Paper X ceiling.
All right, we'll talk more about this later,
because Golden Boy did say they had a special surprise
So let's see what that surprise is.
Oh yeah, we got you covered because this thing looks pretty
dang cool. Let's go ahead and show to the world folks. 3, 2, 1.
Bam. There you have it. 16 teams have come to Shanghai with
one goal lift a trophy. So folks, there's a second trophy
here as well. And if you got that champion's 2026 skin
It may look a little familiar, Mitch. This thing is awesome. What's going on here?
Yeah, obviously, this is a trophy that's kind of created to commemorate and celebrate Shanghai.
We have the dragon and the snake aspects of us, which really ties into the thematic of this year.
And also, you can see really closely, the alpha and omega aspects also competing for control of the middle here.
So, super tied in. Looks absolutely gorgeous, and it's bang on the money for our theme this year.
Yeah, Echo, do you think that we could lift this one over our head, potentially?
Just put it in your luggage.
There it is.
There it is.
She's got the reach.
She's got the reach.
Now, of course, it's important to know players will hoist
the original Champions Trophy in the winning moment,
not our Shanghai City exclusive version.
This is a special edition just to celebrate here
that we're here in Shanghai, China,
to enjoy this amazing event.
But folks, that is going to do it for us here at the PC
Bong.
What an occasion this has been.
Had a great time here.
Go, thank you so much for sticking with me, not
even, you know, you can get me lighter. I got you. I got you.
Buffy. All right, folks, that's going to do it for us here.
Victoria, back to you. Close out this pre show. Thank you so
much, GV. That is such a cool trophy. I kind of wish that was
the one that they were hoisting. Yeah, I want it right here,
man. Right here. And if it mysteriously disappears. Yeah,
I kind of like the snake game with the Viper. The
activations are happening all across the city. This is
probably the biggest activation we're having at a
And this is the last iteration of this version of BCT franchise as we know it.
Yeah, this is going to be a big one. I think the teams are so hungry, whether it's the young teams that are finally coming in to their success here in this year, or the old legends that still have a chip on their shoulders.
This tournament is going to be a blast. And Payprex Team Liquid to kick it off is so good.
So good, insane.
End of an era and genuinely going into this tournament.
I don't know who's gonna take it.
I don't know who the favorite is.
It is going to be absolutely sick.
Well, ladies and gentlemen,
the wait is finally over.
Day one of Champions Shanghai starts right now.
I am Shangai and the man behind me is missing.
I can't open my eyes because I'm perfect.
What does that mean?
I can't open my eyes.
Maybe it's a fish.
Maybe it's a fox.
You two have too many movies to watch.
You have to sleep well.
I think we're all going to finish eating.
Let's eat some more.
Waiter.
If the even champion Shanghai is to say this here
has been full of surprises,
we'd be if understated.
Let's just call it what it is.
The old guard is dead.
Now it sounds like a hot take, but look who's here.
We have Nong Shim and a sentient team who won it all in Santiago.
Carmichael couldn't win a single match in Stage 1,
and they ended up leading EMEA.
And I'm sure Team Liquid would love to change that.
We know how the 100 teams took to top spots.
The defending champions, NRG, they end up looking shaky.
And as for China, well, I think they'd rather just
He'd rather just pretend to master TopGyago than ever even happen.
He'd bow back in a big way and master London,
but now they really need to prove that they're capable of winning it all over.
Especially in front of the home crowd.
Look, the sport is changing.
There are no guarantees anymore
and for some of these players, champion Sean Hyde,
might just be their last.
What if this was my last chance?
I think he's a champion.
He's a champion smelting champs?
Yeah.
He's a champion.
And people ask me how long do I want to keep going?
It's until the winning champs.
And then I will see what's next.
If I am the last champion, I will be the real me.
I will fight with my brothers.
I will not lose.
I will not be my last champion.
I will not lose.
I will not lose.
This time, I forged a legacy behind Toronto.
I want this.
What's it like?
Losing in front of 10,000 people?
Suffocate.
Embarrassing.
Just want to get off the stage.
Eventually, you start wondering how many chances you have left.
I never dreamed about being an eSports player. Just with the risk and it was worth it.
If this was my last champs, I wouldn't change a single thing.
We're one of the oldest teams here. So yeah, there's an expiration date.
It's now or never.
My first chance was in 2023.
We made it to the final.
Two more finals this year and two more losses.
But Coach Panda has always helped us in these moments.
He wrote me this letter.
Ilya, you once told me that you want to become the best in the world.
It's just one step on your path to victory.
And if everything goes wrong, just breathe.
You are more than ready and capable.
You're about to win.
You can just feel it.
The dream's already realized.
You just have to finish it.
We've always had what it takes.
Now, we just have to show it.
I think I understand the meaning of that dream.
Every time I know what's waiting for me,
I'm still afraid of going out.
I'm still afraid of going out.
I'm still afraid of going out.
I'm still afraid of going out.
But I don't care.
There's a fear of defeat.
You're not the third wheel.
You're not the third wheel.
I'm not here to chase history, I'm not here to kill history, I'm not here to kill history,
I'm here to add to it. I'm ready for my third
I often put these words in my heart
It's champion Shanghai the moment you've been waiting for and to kick off the biggest event of the year our first match is
between repeat champs contenders team Liquid and the Kings without a ground, Paper X.
Paper X are coming in here with something to prove of course they were the first team to qualify here for champions have a history of high finishes
but now with some time since we've last seen them and qualifying with their weakest performance yet before a global event
They need to hit the gate running and that weakest performance begs the question
Are paperwrecks fighting for just a trophy or for the are they fighting to maintain?
Relevancy as well the longest standing core of any team that is in this tournament right now
They have watched their counterparts at the top for various different regions all fall by the wayside
side replaced by the next generation of Valorant players.
Well, they are still here today.
Can they hit that peak that they hit in Toronto
to capture their first champions trophy?
Speaking of new generations, Team Liquid
did the unthinkable, slotting in a brand new player
for their champs run.
An 18-year-old rookie in GSR promoted
from the academy team to play with some
of the most legendary players in the game on the stage,
both Nats to his right, but also Paper X taking him on on the other side.
This is about as ridiculous a greeting as you can make to the international
stage, the tier one level, but GSR has been waiting so long for this moment.
If you told him that this would be his future at the start of this year, he
would never have believed you.
Nats though leading the way, a wealth of experience, a global trophy
under his belt, one of the greatest to ever touch this game.
And he has still got it.
This Team Liquid team have just been slowly piecing together
a world-class roster.
And today, it's a different story than Paper Rex,
who we are immediately putting in championship contender
placement.
Team Liquid, they are just fighting
to break through the group stage,
always faltering at that one and two,
always showing potential but they're not able you know not being able to fully
live up to it. The shadow of that one two is always looming over them and they
come into this and they think they're a second seed it should be a good easy
group that you can play through. No you have the number one team in China but
then also you have Paper X and G2 to fill it out so you have to be playing
at the top of your game if you want to make it through and not have that
one two. Hit you again. Now they have faced at least twice the first time
in Istanbul, very different roster for Team Liquid back then, and then again recently last
year in Toronto.
Yeah, and the irony of that previous matchup in Toronto is that Team Liquid were doing
hot swaps before Globals back then as well.
Of course they had Penny come in as an emergency substitute to play for Nats' slot, but playing
against PaperX they chose to keep him in there and go to that six man roster.
Team Liquid once again facing off against PaperX and once again making a last second
switch up in the duelist department.
That might just result in a situation though,
where they have the honeymoon period.
They bring in a new player who has something to prove
right onto the global stage.
He has the passion.
He has the fire.
And if he brings the firepower at the level
that they expect, then that could take them over the top.
They have other players in peak form right now.
We have never seen Camo this good heading
into this tournament.
Can you imagine those two as a duelist duo
they're both peeking that is so potent. Now what I'm really curious about is what kind of agent
comps both of these teams will bring in with team liquid with the GSR change coming in he's a little
bit more flexible and also we saw lots of experimentation over in stage two for paper x.
I don't even want to guess for paper x like could they be a get go mix yeah could there be a
harper yeah mix yeah why not they were playing that back on a set back at the start of the
the stage but for Team Liquid I really think that the conversation is an
interesting one because they have such a unique read on the meta playing so much
of the Jett previously whether or not GSR is gonna slot into that role one for
one still remains up in the air but also with Nats on the Cypher too I just
think that the way Team Liquid play is so interesting because I don't see any
other teams play with more of a wealth of information on the defense
side than Team Liquid. So many teams now playing. The Neons and the Chambers going
for these sort of like guessing timing plays where you go for the refights. No.
With the Cypher utility and Ford lines being held by a Jett, you just know where
the enemy is at almost all times and it lets Natchcraft up really intelligent
rounds to counter his opponents. Now we did see the HyperX map select just
earlier. We're ending with a cent to start Haven and then Lotus if we get
there. Why? What do you make of this map? This cent map is going to be
sick. Paper Rex picked that. It's been fantastic for them. The danger of picking a
scent is that the other team gets to start on defense, the historically
favorite side on the map. So sometimes you put yourself in an uncomfortable
situation where you do have to make a serious comeback, happen on the side
swap. And I think a scent has looked like a nice map for Team Liquid. The way
I'm watching Camo maneuver on defense, I mean, he plays sometimes like he
thinks he's a chamber, like he thinks he's a jet. He takes some forward
positions on Phoenix and yet he's just getting away with everything because his form right now
is so elite tier so yes have paper X gone to a home map for them of course but it is by no means
an uncomfortable one for liquid. No I had liquid three and one on the year or on the stage rather
paper X four and oh and I think right away we get to see what the read is now Ascent has always
been a big time jet map. So of all the maps, if GSR is going to be
flooding in one for one, this would be the one to do it.
But for Team Liquid, this has been a pretty patterned following map for them,
playing the jet, playing the Cypher, the Phoenix in the mix as well.
Of all the maps, I think this is the one you stick to your guns.
I do think it's also a little bit poetic that if we get to map three,
it is Lotus. These two teams, it's always been two one kind of score line.
Lotus is the map that's given that liquid. It's always pushed paper X on and paper X is also been losing Lotus
Oh, yeah, no, they have not liked Lotus. They've only played it once they lost a little bit of a PTSD
Perhaps from playing against levy a ton winning that map the first time losing at the second time against them second place
Again in London. So for that to be the third map feels a little brutal
It might be a situation where they need to chew up.
Yeah, it's certainly possible.
And again, it depends on what the form these teams end up
coming in with, because it has just been quite a bit of time
for PaperX.
But I also feel like we just get
such a big clash of styles with these two teams, PaperX,
that can play just about everything.
They scrap on you.
They get freaky in the mid rounds,
coming up with cool plays, where
his team Liquid plays such similar comps, map to map,
play that slower macro approach.
You have two legends of the scene on either side with that's trying to call and paper X on the other side
But you couldn't ask for two more different teams. Definitely another one of the contrasts is just an agent select
You have team liquid who are just fully indexed hundred percent to do list that is the matter that they want to stick to
Whereas paper X have not loved double duelists
It is not naturally fit their team as they don't have a true neon player
It is not going to look that they've opted for this year to buy it by any means to the same
Level of liquid who are you ever running like a jet?
Double dualism six out of seven maps right now. Yeah, and even if we hone in on a set now
This is a map where pay breaks have been quite unique in their style most recently playing solo yoru in terms of the dive
And then also running both double sage and chamber so double sentinel on that one and who is playing the same
It was so weird and then Jake played it. It was a very unusual experimentation and I they had a lot of time to cook
So they're coming to start it with a lot more pressure
I think then team liquid a lot of expectation for this team
So I do wonder how this will match up today. That is also why I really want to see team liquid just stick to the same
Comps they were running. I think it makes sense
new guy
Just slot him into the team first time in a tier one team. He's playing immediately a champions
Let's simplify the game for him and for us by just having him play the same agent basically everywhere
It makes everything so straightforward and it makes everyone as comfortable as possible
And you can use that comfort that foundation that they already have as a team to get an inherent advantage over paper X
You are going to be
Considering so much more seriously
I feel to actually be changing up the comps coming in with different looks up here
It isn't they are just back to the same thing on a set what on this map it doesn't make sense
there a 4 and I like to check and watch what's going on.
Yeah, I mean Payprex as well, playing the similar comp although it is something Yoru for this
one.
Again, this is such a wacky comp to see face off because I think with Payprex with both
the Yoru and the champion you have so many options for taking first fights with the
Get Out of Dale 3 cards.
It makes it really hard if Camel's going to run trap plays with the Phoenix to
actually punch out either of those two guys in the mains.
Payprex can dominate that play over orbs and over mains
on this attacking side and tonight,
you look through a lot of forward info.
This is gonna be an interesting matchup,
like you said, stylistically very different.
And to take us through the very first match of champions
is our Pacific boys, Achilleos and Payprex.
Thank you very much.
It is the most wonderful time of the year.
Champions here at long last,
to start things off. It's Paper Rex versus Team Liquid. We were there when they
squared off in Toronto. We were casting that series and oh boy, it was, if
nothing else, very entertaining. Let's hope that that happens once again.
Yeah, no doubt about it. I beat two over times in that series, including an
11-1 comeback by Team Liquid on Lotus. One of the best series we had in
Toronto. The crazy part about that was it was Paper Rex on their way to
lifting their first and only trophy.
Are they going to be able to replicate that kind of success?
I mean, you've got two teams coming in
with some changes being made in terms of Team Liquid changing
a player.
Paper Rex, we're all expecting maybe
some different comps, some different ideas.
But you're on a scent.
A map that's been reliable for them in Pacific.
They aren't making any changes thus far.
It's kind of curious to see if it's
going to be that way the rest of the way.
And the big stories are going to be, you know,
Liquid always one and two, not getting out of groups.
Can this be finally their time to make it to a playoffs in the side of this partnership era?
And then for paperwrecks, I mean it's been the Jurassic era for the dinosaurs. They've been thriving
They've been doing their best across so many different events getting to so many finals top five finishes across the board
Or is this gonna be the beginning of the Mesozoic era the end of the dinosaur?
It's been that transition it felt like it was happening a bit saw them falling shy of the mark unable to make it to
Busan over in Pacific and certainly stumbling with some of the changes that they were making to their cops across various maps
Can they find that stability to continue to lean on what has been working for them here on a set?
Big question as the desk was talking about it at nauseam
The community has been talking about it at nauseam is how does GSR look stepping on to this stage the desk was just talking about it
I think why I highlighted it so very well
This is one of the toughest matchups that you could possibly possibly be thrown into for your first time ever into your one
It's on a global stage and it's against the team that has made it to both grand finals so far this year
That said we are ready to get the action underway
Paper X starting off on the attack here in a set
And who would have thought coming into 2026 champs that it would be a scent Paper X's map picked by looking for a little contact
Not gonna find much, takes quite a bit of damage in response.
Yeah, he ends up beating another shot there. Meanwhile...
...talking to the corner here at bench from Forsaken.
We're all gonna be thrown up towards Marker. They're gonna try to isolate these chatches.
Attaching into the corner, we'll get taken down. It's gonna be two kills.
Now a third here for Paper Rex.
Pound around the corner of Forsaken.
They have to find tracks, and that leaves just nuts.
In the... watching the angle, spotting it, looking for the kill, and we'll get it.
The opening pistol goes away.
And this is something that I really want to highlight for the fans how important it is to win pistols
Not just because of this meta because of the snowball except for because of how good team liquid is when they win pistol
So getting this one very very impactful here for paper X on this attacker side
I love this wall to cut off that market angle to isolate that fight to make it really uncomfortable
For this rookie on the stage
Paper X has some good ideas off of the rip
Are they going to be able to keep it up?
Team Liquid likes to get aggressive on these Ecos.
You've got to be on the watch out.
They will definitely go for these hits in A main
and try to make you uncomfortable.
Oh, and PaperX certainly are not strangers to dropping.
There's anti-Eco rounds.
They're going to be struck down,
but for the sake of people who've had a collect with the Ghost,
because why the hell not?
Quick kills in reply.
Just the stage eliminated thus far,
but good amount of damage dealt.
There's still a window here for Team Liquid to make this one hurt.
And you never know what that's.
He is always finding those open angles.
Envy down to 34 health there.
Gonna have to readjust that shock dart.
Gonna miss the mark just a bit.
Something has to read and has Nats dealt with.
Now just trucks who turn it away
and Envy will be able to connect in with a head shot.
That's gonna be a two zero starting up
for paper Rex as we move into the bonus.
Everything gonna be carried over.
I think if you're a paper Rex fan,
you're very happy with what you're seeing so far,
obviously, but the bigger thing I think is
The problems that paperwrecks had were often not being aggressive enough, believe it or not.
Jordan, like this is something that Alex even talked about in one of their videos that they released,
kind of talking to the players after some of the matches that he didn't feel like they were playing
like themselves, like they were playing too much default. He literally said this,
and this is not, so far they haven't really played that. They're getting aggressive,
they're doing the right things, they're watching for Nath. That's a huge thing in this matchup.
You have to keep Nath contained because he is always looking for those advantages.
A bonus conversion would make for already an incredible attacker side-start.
Here's the trademark, just going to be cleared out, GSR looking to stick on this angle, but
has to take the tailwind out of the paranoia, it crashes across, fucking over it, switch
the clone to lead the way.
So far, nothing really going to be found here, looks like Paper Rex might just take this
orb and go elsewhere.
As they were trying to bait a contact fight, just couldn't get it, very good discipline
being shown here early by GSR, not shooting the clone, not going for any kind of crazy
individual effort.
Something got to go on a late-linger.
He's also trying to sell this, has a gatecrash back to the spawn, wants to try to keep numbers
of liquid on this out of the map, the curveball, going to be coming in, and he gets the headshot,
he gets out!
Massive punish found on the camo.
They continue to try to just slow down the roll of that Phoenix.
And I am fast access that run it back.
Oh, I don't think Trek says any idea.
Not so everybody's not going to go walking forward wisely.
However, Cumbill's going to be spotted.
If we get back around the corner fast enough to avoid taking damage.
Slowed the alley, the smoke will bloom.
GSR sprays away, rewarded with a kill as Indy will fall.
The site however is still going to be open, primed for the taking as we go into a 4v4.
I know U-Till really left here.
Four paper wrecks in this post plant.
So we have to get it done with the guns.
Qing is going to take the high wall have to be able to read this one but something with another kill
down to seven HP. He'll not going to be available quite just yet here from Qing but could just swing
the wind out coming back up in three seconds. That's something just takes that fight. He takes
time that's three kills four and Qing in a boosted position able to get rewarded.
That's going to be a bonus converted as Drexel just to try to hold onto this lung phantom.
P.R.X on the prowl. Three player push, jump on the corner to find them, swing out, treks,
steady on that reset. Balls a 15 to buy here, making noise. Once this gun out of his hands
and he shall get it, nothing going to be carried over as P.R.X convert the bonus.
Yeah, this is just really good stuff being shown by Paper Rex early. Some kind of different
ideas than what we're used to with them. They're often very stubborn about trying to take these fights, but
they're doing some really interesting stuff in terms of showing big numbers here at BMA, then just
leaving something we talked about. He wants to be the best in the world, and he is off to a roaring
start. Five and one on the Yoru already, and he has been electric for Paper Rex despite their
stumbles, and he is comfortable on the big stages. We've seen it time and time again
How he could pop off at the globals.
A little bit of a spanned bench.
Still looking about to firepower here.
Two sharps that goes to Bandit and then a stinger for Trex.
Four of the moments going to be the closest player to getting an ult online for Team Liquid.
Paranoia goes across towards tree side. It's going to be fast rotating here for TL.
Match to line him up with a counter-spray.
Just going to be far too much for him to try to survive.
Well, this is gonna be a pretty tricky retake.
PaperX is gonna have a pretty good idea,
and most of this is gonna be coming through.
Second take of the door, into the fire.
Those two quick kills, Nats.
Going forward down onto the side.
It's gonna be good for another here, 14 liquid,
but in the end, it's not gonna be much damage.
Dell, 4-0 starting here for PaperX,
and now they have a plethora of ultimates to work with.
I mean, PaperX has done a great job of avoiding
any of the trickery and being aware of it
in case it is coming from Nats and Team Liquid.
It's not just that the desk was talking about this and I'm glad they did that a lot of the players on liquid are looking for those
Early advantages looking for that early space and because paper X is doing a good job
Pre-burial drop of calling some good ideas
They're able to avoid a lot of these get ahead of the ball before team liquid can really establish their presence on the map
So that's going to be very different in styles
Well, we're gonna have a listen with paper X see how they pilots round
We need to kill them
I'm going out
I'm holding flash too
I'm going out
Can I go out?
Ok I'm going out
Ok I'm going out
3, 2, 1, go
It's over, it's over
It's open, it's open
I'm pressing
It's over, it's over
One more, it's under CT
3 more, 3 more, 3 more
No, no, no
It's under CT
It's under CT
It's under CT
Let's cancel and play the round
It's under CT
You're choosing a round
Tracer, go to CT
CpN come back
He's on
CpN back
CpN mid
CpN plant for Heaven
CpN on bot
Cpn come to me
Cpn open
Take that tank
Cpn go to spawn J
I don't think so
Here, yep
Oh, it's here
Yeah?
Two two two two two
Keeping very low
No more flash
They're gonna be there
What are you?
It's okay, just hold the angle
Let's go jump first
Up
The left side chain!
Close, but no cigar for Paper Racks. Team Liquid.
And they don't fight around. They'll give themselves their first win.
4-1, they also get quite a bit of ults out of Paper Racks. Everything that they had, they dumped it.
That's a big round. Could be one of those kind of changes in momentum, changes in the series.
series of that spray down there from tracks,
getting that double that really slowed the roll here.
And Qing almost able to come through with it.
Nice idea to get up on top of Zhen.
And he caught that completely off guard.
But this was a really good recognition from Nats and Kicks
that Forsythian could have tucked in there up
towards the top of market.
And they read it.
And they took him out.
He had no idea.
He thought maybe they were going to come through market
or something like that.
And that was huge.
That was a really pivotal moment.
Boyd any backstab forced Jing into that 1v2.
So let's see what wants to be discussed during this time out.
Yeah, I mean, despite the round win,
it's certainly not nearly as clean as you want to say.
So we'll have this one called by Team Liquid.
I mean, honestly, I wouldn't even be that shocked
if this is just not just trying
to pick up the team a little bit here.
Because players like Camo, who normally is delivering show
very heavily was a big part of them making it to this very tournament at the
moment is sitting one five and one still doesn't have that running back online
brand guess he's one charge away but this is something you want to be seen by
you know two rounds ago so maybe just to try to get them all zoned in focused
in see if this ends up working in their favor yeah for sure I mean I could
see this being a little bit talking about the pace of the play how they're
going to be able to establish some of their map presence that they want to
with paper wrecks being not super fast but I'd say you know faster than
what they're used to playing against at EMEA for sure.
So maybe trying to get a little bit more mid presence,
trying to find a way to lurk through mid,
I think would be a really effective moment.
And that's exactly what they're trying to do with kicks.
But it's right by Jing.
Sprout, now to bottom.
Still just tucked away.
There's a rude away hitting the GSR.
Push the wall, Camo just sprinting out.
Meanwhile, all the rest of Paper Rex
slowly creeping their way forward towards A.
Just gonna be nats and treks to try to hold this line
but they could just double back.
It looks like that's exactly what they're going to do.
Once again, just using something,
try to bait them, keep them on this side of the map.
All the rotation comes in.
However, Camo in position for potential punish,
but backs away.
I think they're taking corner.
Climps twice, going out a little bit wider.
I think he might have seen the gunfire,
but now Camo, more of that,
is what we want to be seeing.
And as team look, we're trying to come online.
Now has the ult ready to go.
Drex looking forward inside of that smoke
before they get able to win the duel.
We'll approach out for main Nats, just going to be tucked away here at Trey.
Look at these trips too.
Something able to TP past the one, but still will have that Sova contained.
Now they're on it back, going to be Poff, Camo.
Out and over the top, Nats turns over.
Is he going to find something?
They've had him identified, and Nats taking down two.
Zimbi finds himself out in 1v2,
and that shot guard is certainly not where he wanted it to go.
Isolates it down to 1v1.
But Nats survives with 5 HP.
That was close. That was awfully close. But that's Nats spider web there on the A site that makes it so tricky for
Paper Rex to scale forward there and there's already pings coming down on the map highlighting where some of that
Util was so they can be a little bit more proactive about clearing it. And these were gorgeous shots from Camo as well.
That's what you're gonna need. He was incredible at times inside of EMEA. I mean he would have these unbelievable
Multi-kill rounds where he would just take over with his individual skill.
And that is just a round lost by mere inches there for Paper Racks.
Inb, that shock dart connects.
That should be Curtains on the round.
What have been the difference maker as far as the damage is concerned?
Drunk forward, well spot out Nax. Once again tucked away here at Switch.
Re-Raps, back of Jen, Paper Racks, and they're pulling all of Team Liquid away from the B site, but they have no info there
to try to go for a rotation.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, you're going to be expecting
Liquid now to be a little bit faster
with their rotates and other things like that.
You've already seen them being aggressive towards mid.
You've got to be kind of aware and thoughtful of it.
You know that they're going to want to try to take some space
in the mid.
You saw it in the previous round.
So again, a lot of players from Paper Rex
trying to keep track of this, something
making a dangerous cross here.
So far, no punish to be found.
Long stack, swing the corner.
and she has so hard to turn the flash gets the punish you're now down.
Paper X once again clustering back over towards a meanwhile kicks his
positions never been scouted, but he's going to pull off the angle makes a
little bit of noise on that rotation.
I believe he just looking for this insert on the flank, but team liquid,
they have the ducks in the right position at the right time.
And now suddenly it's just in the Hunter's jury.
Yes, going to be committed, but ultimately team liquid.
They care about the round win, and they will have it.
Wallis-Bashim can't take a single gun out of their hands.
Team Liquid now one away from tying it up.
Yeah, you can see that Paper X is now not as decisive.
And they're taking some risks on the map.
Something here just swinging in to try to challenge GSR,
to try to take on the rookie.
Not able to win the fight.
A good turn there of the clone clear.
Something's shot's not able to be as sharp
As we saw in the early part, Kicks has done this time and time again.
He will also have these huge rounds.
And it's going to be a timeout taken here by Paper Rex in response.
Want to talk a little about it, but look at Alex Kong collected.
That can only last for so very long.
I know.
It's just a matter of time.
The heart publications will start at some point.
All but assured.
and see Dubai doing a hell of a lot of talking here to try to assess what exactly has been going wrong,
what they've been misplaying across these last several rounds, three-round streak.
Not something that they want to be seeing here is Liquid trying to get themselves back into this.
Desperous talk about it. We talked about how important it is to get yourself out in front
at the start of this map when you're on that attacker's side.
Yeah, absolutely. It is a great start for PaperX in a lot of ways,
especially against a team liquid that's so well known
for their defender side.
Like, this is one of the teams that you're looking at
for maybe the best on the defender side coming
into this event.
They've been so strong throughout their history.
They've done a great job for the most part
in the MEA of shutting teams out.
So this hot start from Paper Rex, definitely what you want.
But you'd like to get a little bit more out of this.
Squeeze a little bit more out of this limit
to get some more lemonade here.
Yeah.
And as we saw on that Coinbase win condition,
just not much to try to work with here.
You do have a tour to force you want to try to commit that
into the round from Dubai.
But otherwise, it's going to be sheriffs and bandits.
There's a drone maybe caught it up of a glimpse,
but either way, the tailwind will certainly give it away.
Quick reposition of safety.
Trip's going to be cleared out.
Dubai.
Doesn't manage to find one.
That's going to be Cam out down, just peeking out from Kat.
That's what was identified during the time out there,
I bet, talking about how they're giving up
a little bit of space here over at Kat.
I mean, we saw kicks pushing into that position earlier.
So now they are anticipating some of these defaults
that Team Liquid wants to set up now.
They hear the quick rotates.
GSR already on the spot.
Oh, but called off guard by half ball forward
for a second of gotten.
Now he's got to be forced away.
Shreks however, swinging out of the spot.
Because it lined up.
Got so too much for the third and he gets it.
Spike down, A.
And any hope of a thrifty mage has died right there
in window.
Guns head recovered lost. It's just a buy
Really with the firepower is something about to come swinging around this corner. She has our has him dead to rights
30 seconds left there should be no hope here as good as the bike can be
Trying to go for the quick scope but treks
Not gonna be caught by it gets himself a 4k and gets team liquid up to four as they tie things up
I mean it's just been individual step-ups from the players of Team Liquid. We've seen it with kicks. We've seen it with camo
We've seen it with that's we've seen it with tracks
Everybody finding these big multi-kills riding the wall no problem. I mean the paranoia was coming in there anyway
Just not anticipated here by paper rex in time
They thought they kind of had just a little bit of extra space to maneuver there
But again because Team Liquid is so quick to rotate. This is what they do on Lotus a lot too
So it's really good to see them be proactive here on a set
Try to counteract the pace that paper X wants to play at divide will grab the opt jing has the res
A couple big components available for paper X
I'm just gonna make an entry in towards market trying to create this beast play
Drum confirming heavy presence drilling this over to not to market door now going to be busted open
And we're gonna be good, but in the final one here tracks gonna be taken down
Camo, a kill and reply, Ching, out of the equation means that there's not gonna be a
res here. Take a little look forward and look at the jump. Camo struck down, but still
two players situated here on beam and forsaken. He's picking them apart one after
the other. And now it's just a GSR. Blinds up first, but this would have to be a run before, and it's peak.
Gets quite a bit of damage on the divide.
Forces in the rewrap, but all the while you have this backstab getting ready to
come through from something.
He offsets it, the game's in the end.
Paper X on the back.
That time out and he thrift the attempt.
We'll be able to reestablish a one round lead.
Just kind of creating something simple using that wall,
kind of like we saw on the pistol,
except this time they're cutting up spawn
instead of market to make their entry here.
Just a good read by Envy there through the smokes.
And a big round from Versaikin.
The two kills, plus the instant paranoia there
to help in the out onsite to isolate and annihilate Nats.
GSR, a little shake of the head.
Still trying to get it going.
Seen a few good moments from him.
See if he can find a few more to have
that hunter's fury behind the res.
Forsaken has his all that we know
that he likes to be a little bit tricky with that
if he can find his opportunities.
This time, Paper Rex thinking about the A side,
leaving the Dubai over as their one.
Shocked in mid to try to clear some utile, but Nassau's his fool set up here on A.
You're buying up to try to play in alongside kicks who similar position once again just tucked in by switch.
For all the while, the trademark was taken down.
So there's a fast push out from B main.
Aperyx are gonna be down the wiser. It's not gonna be the case though.
It's paranoia. It gets invested per se.
Get the STP to here, but Kasey, get catching a clip. Something's gonna be dead.
Rez immediately gonna be sent in.
But just hearing from Envy, he's fishing, does get a connection.
He's taken down, apparently going to be staff of the teammates.
Now in position to really try to play on the back of this weapon.
Now on the arrival, drop-down Camo.
He ends up losing his life.
Trek's now going to be joining him in the grave.
It's Paper Rex!
He managed to isolate them.
And every twist and turn looked like Team Liquid had the right flood timing,
but it's just a hair off.
It felt like there was a moment where Team Liquid could find that time,
time but Paper Rex has a really good post plan set up. This is something that kind of was concerning me
towards the end of Pacific with Paper Rex was their post plans are often not creating crossfire just
sort of looking the brawl on site. This is a 2-2 split, two players near hell, two in main and that's
a great idea and Forsaken able to use that ult to find that space up at the heaven to create
that extra angle for Paper Rex on the entry to make it really difficult for Liquid. Here they go!
Kerbal going to be turned in, but once again for a second he just has a camo snubber here today.
GSR just, I'm janited to be cleaning up all this utility.
Meanwhile, something with a spot out. I think he wants to go for the aggressive exit.
He's going to go for it, goes bounding forward, and eventually will sit into the judge.
GSR, one of that punished treks now, up over at Heaven.
Doesn't think they'll inb. Puts the spike on the ground for now.
That's Liquid Man, just bring this back into a 3v3.
They needed a way for Devai there to get there with the op.
Cover that Heaven angle.
This could be a little bit more comfortable in this plant,
knowing that that wall, if it gets broken,
they're going to try to flood off the back of that.
Tucks back after getting spotted.
Jump up at the top and jing.
Smoke is just sticking out of it,
finds the kill, and the treks just are not dead,
and it's all onto Nats' shoulders.
Wake up that headshot.
Get the window back into this.
Still a decent amount of time.
Knows exactly where they are.
Connects on a red set again.
And Demi barely scrapes by with a round win!
Oh, you cannot be given those opportunities to Nats!
No, he's too good. He is too damn good.
That is disgusting work with the Guardian, but it's just not quite enough.
Demi is that hunk-hunter in the back pocket.
The point is he's about to something skill.
GSR is watching for this the whole time.
Like, he's just hunting his down and just can't get this.
But something's moving like such a lunatic that he can't connect on him.
Welcome to playing Paper Rex my friend. It is a different beast all together for sure
As we go into the last round of the half to try to catch a toddler when they finally run
Lot of alts though for team liquid and a lot of guardians three of them to be exact
Something is playing a girl. Oh, this is that timing shots going through and he's acting like he didn't even hear this
So you turn over the side and you'll be able to shut down this run it back
The slower boys committed to the new that just always in that position they use that to prevent the swing. That's beautiful coordination there by paper racks. That is really good stuff to keep that operator safe. And now they can leave something tucked in towards mid to keep track of team liquid to deny them this face.
He's going to be going into Nats' site once again.
He's got a trip there.
It's anti-Yoru, which won't probably make a huge difference in this round.
It's the one towards Shen that maybe he's going to be able to make a kill off of.
Of course, they know the cam's going to be there.
Paranoia and GSR having to tuck away, is that right?
They both just come through.
Recon, rather.
Jump to the corner.
Uh-oh.
Recon's away.
And for a second, still going to be able to win the fight.
dead at how something watching towards window and GSR.
Towards his IGL six feet under.
Huster's fury and desperation sent out to try to find anything that they can
given it's last round of this half, but all they're fighting is their demise.
A 2v4 with time bleeding away, it kicks.
Can he get it done?
Second kill, fell on him, but now he is all alone.
And Defy will find the final two.
Eight to four from the attacker side on a cent paper Rex
Fighting quite a bit of stability here
Yeah, great front to back half there. Unbelievable stuff for paper Rex
I don't say it's time for paper Rex, we'll see if Team Liquid can run it back after they have that break
I'm standing here with the man who has completed Valorant.
He has played every single agent in a competitive professional match, but for saken, I want to
Which agent will you never ever play on the champ stage?
Right now, so far I think I choose maybe Cloth.
Not Gecko, because I like Gecko to be honest. It's really fun to play.
But I think for me Cloth, because in team play it's just hard to play as a team with the utility.
So maybe Cloth.
Are you sure not Gecko?
No, I really like Gecko. I like to defend my teammate, you know?
I see the Vi over there and he's kind of giving me a look. He's like nah man.
I want to play Gekko again. If Alex gives me a chance to, you know, second chance.
Kind of hoping we get to see that happen.
We're back about to go into the second half here.
And since paper X's map pick eight to four from that attacker side
One hell of a feat from the let's see now
Looking to show up this map making it an easy affair
Take us into Haven
Says yes, yes, we can wow so in the corner
Damaged out on the envy but the kill not quite there yet here for GSR
Across the other way meanwhile in the swing out in the midflying tracks
All up now on to be made no longer a concern with a spike down all of paper
Rex gets clustered up a camel.
He's happy with that first shot.
Cannot find anything else.
It's a shooting gallery here for paper Rex.
And a team liquid are the targets.
I mean this is another round where you can see that huge advantage you have of having a sage
because you get the heal and it in me even though he gets absolutely lit up outside of the
You're just able to swing back in towards mid and take a fight divide.
This is absolute bill.
Then they just cluster up fight together as a team and has got for sake of fired up.
I did see Nats trying to give one of his speeches during app time, but right now paper X feels
like they're on another level.
It's an easy, super easy liquid.
He would try to kick things into gear here.
Dubai.
There's a pressure, but with a martial shot,
connects it right into the leg of GSR.
He goes down, cages forward, just caterpillaring for it.
Over towards window.
And he's going to get flushed out.
Camera able to find the woman out.
Jingle the counter swing up.
Nice.
Why does he have to be Phoenix?
Gets himself another Nats.
on the up and over off the Paranoia and Forsaken takes it into his own hands alongside Jing.
No thrifty to be found. It's Paper Rex at double digits and up by six.
Oh, this is huge. I mean, you're getting Jing so fast-tracked towards a res likely going to have
it coming into the fourth round of the half. It's a great opener. Jing even better.
That wall to isolate those fights really like that. Keep them from being able to
Create some extra angles some extra opportunities. I thought maybe Nats would try to go up through window
He loves to try to work that part of the map, but
Just opted to try to group up there just an eco a lot of shotguns here for the side of paper Rex
judge for something the Bucky
It's just a double tap
Governor Leo Faryett, you don't have to do anything. Just make sure he's dead
Shots at the shoulder there on the GSR
It's a very shallow TP out.
Navai repositioning with this short.
He's trying to play this slyly and he does match.
He slipped in that first hit, but now fire at his feet.
He's still going to be alive.
Check in from Forsaken.
He considers the reposition off the TP.
Clears the drone first.
He's backs around the corner.
Meanwhile, Camel back over to market.
Cleans up one, ching up and over onto the wall.
Second one's going to be broken down,
but he's not going to be going for that curse for glance.
Oh, can't steady it with the buy at 4 HP.
This looks incredibly doable now for Team Liquid.
They have an open B site.
It's only two shotguns for Paper Racks, so this should be pretty difficult for them to
scale forward.
Looking for the timing to get the swing of Camo, steadying it.
Now has that run it back online to buy.
30 seconds left.
Try to get this.
It's just far too low and Camo's far too prepared.
Wing and Curveboy runs out of bullets!
And now suddenly this is a 1v1 gate crash to the pack of sight.
Fakes it and this would be an ace clutch for something.
It's keeping it quiet.
Trex checking on the angle.
Damage suffered on both sides. 30 HP apiece.
Perfect parody.
The Trex has the advantage of time on his side.
The right click takes something down the floor.
The jump in the corner, the Ace is found.
And he has got it.
What a round to go, Paper Rex's way.
That's something absolutely abhornerates Team Liquid.
Wow, wow, wow.
My jaw is on the floor
I heat
Has come into this event to even better form and I could have imagined
This is an unbelievable round takes that bulldog off of forsaken its body immediately gets two kills with it
He can't even believe it
That is
astounding absolutely astounding stuff from something
I can't believe it, and I don't blame him.
That is just an insane round to have dropped.
It's an insane play from something.
They've got a force into this.
Good news for them, maybe, is they have two players who have full armor,
so they can at least maybe absorb some of Divine's outlaw.
But tracks with just a ghost to make sure that a couple of guardians
could be put into the mix.
Verdi's team Liquid would be pretty sharp with them,
but they're gonna have to really turn it on here
on this attacker's side.
It has gone from bad to worse.
Kai does take some damage.
But he also hangs up kicks.
He's down to 31.
Has the regen on behind it.
Tonne trying to work with.
As you're looking through the eye,
Paper X from getting up to match point.
He lost something.
His position is still unscouted.
So he's able to fight two.
He is the master fisherman for a reason catches team liquid hook line and sinker.
I mean the coordination today the teamwork from paper racks has seen it you know with
the trading in the shooting but also some good util really thinking towards the chain
here and sage has been really nice to do not give nats another chance.
It's not going to have the time.
The spikes till the world away.
And Forsaken will just be able to put him down.
12 to 4.
Hit for X. Absolutely showing why.
They elected to take us to this very map.
They look incredible on it.
I mean, it's one of those maps that used to just absolutely
play them.
They couldn't find the solutions for years.
They tried so many different comps
for this valorant stable.
Now they've found something that works extremely well for them.
They're going to be coming in with a lot of firepower
here into this next round.
They're saying it's having a crandled time up there.
Liquid, despite the circumstances,
despite how insane it would be for them to run this back.
We'll be using that pile of time out of the map.
Take a look at the Coinbase win condition here
and see what they're going to be able to scrape together.
It's a couple of guardians into the hands of Nats
and GSR, they only have the one ult to try to work with.
It's going to be Camo going into this glass cannon
with a vandal.
Absolutely.
It's going to be tricky.
I mean, already, what Paper Rex has been showing them
is a lot of different looks in terms of some set plays,
some trap plays that they've been running.
We saw it with the judge with something,
you know, countering Nats early by taking
an aggressive angle into the smoke at the B main corner.
And then, of course, the push and pull with Divy.
Like you said, reeling in the biggest catch of the day there.
Obviously, what are you going to do against something
when he gets an ace on the bonus?
It's going to be tough, up and up, Odin as well here.
So it's not looking great for Team Liquid,
but three run back.
They've done it before.
They've done it before against this team.
And it's from an even bigger deficit.
Let's see, there's very different circumstances, a very different roster.
Considering the triple explorer in the mid.
DeVy considering a walkabout, but the drone will actually force him back away, Envy.
Gonna make his position, no, I mean while the drone does not get cleared.
Tp to reposition, Camel not quite catching a sound about it, don't think, DeVy will fall, but
they shut down, the alt kicks is dead.
That's another clean tap.
He will come away with one and Jing is just going to look at B to see if he can try to get this elimination and he shall.
Just taking able to find GSR before the Kerbal connects and there you go.
Treks now spotted, surrounded and picked apart.
Three for Jing, 13 to four.
Paper Rex looking alive and well on a set.
Well that's an absolute statement to start champ 20-26 by Paper Rex.
A big map wing for them. Let's see how they fare on liquid pick up Haven after the break
AHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHH!
But easy! It's too easy!
The city of love becomes the city of thieves!
They plunder, they pilfer, and they persevere in Paris!
You women, and a father and a niece, what's wrong with you?
How do you think you can do this?
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Please go out. I'm going to go through the other boxes.
I'm here right now with Coach Alex of PaperX. Congratulations on the first map win of Champion Shanghai.
Now, I'm wondering, we've seen so many differences, or we've seen so many iterations of PaperX all throughout the years.
What are the biggest differences that you see in the team and the playstyle on a global stage versus a regional one?
I mean, we tried to have the same playstyle regardless, but I think the boys just enjoy the crowd a lot more, you know.
So like, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the equation, they'll play a lot better.
Well we love seeing them come alive for sure and this crowd is definitely a big part of that so good luck to you
Welcome back victory here joined by Ender and Wyatt and yes
You could see that there's a completely different energy coming out from paper rex here on the big stage compared to in Pacific
Where things ended a super lack luster now straight up the rip this win against liquid on the first map
Liquid had some really good ideas Wyatt coming into this really early aggressions
But Paper X shut it down.
I'm super impressed by that because Paper X
it's always a risk to pick a sign on some level
because the other team get to start on defense
and at least an EMEA teams have not been able to deal
with Liquid getting very aggressive in early rounds
on defense, Camel taking a lot of timings,
winning a lot of fights, but that was not the case here.
Paper X were able to shut down any attempt Liquid had
at getting an early round advantage.
Winning out on the attack half with advantage
and going to defense like you know it's already over from there.
Yeah.
The pistols, the bonuses, they did more than enough on attack.
And they knew the tendencies of Team Liquid as well.
Because like I was talking about before,
Team Liquid play with so much information on the map,
both with the Cypher utility and also their Gen of the Phoenix
players just walking up and taking space.
And if something isn't in those shots,
they're running those set plays to find the opening picks.
Team Liquid are going to be playing down a player every round.
And there is also one player.
And if he's in form, it's really
to stop him. That's something for the HyperX reflex moment here with something shots. Oh come on.
His growth on the Yoru over the course of this year has been an absolute treat and watching him
on this bonus round start off with the shotguns to end up coming to this 1v3 clutch and then just
sitting there waiting putting the fear of god in the other team like he just waited and waited
and waited after he's got to realize that they've just lost a 3v1.
Yeah, you're sitting there knowing you're playing against something and he's just gonna
walk up to you and kill you.
And that is how they win the double pistol double bonus.
It is ridiculous, man.
His stats on this map, insane.
We were already highlighting in the pre-show how as the year is going on, every stage
his yoru has just been statistically better and better and that we have arrived at
a place in the meta late in this year where with the recent little buffs to yoru,
is so relevant again and something is hitting that next level at the exact
right time. You know he used to be we used to make fun of his Euro in the
early days we're like what's he doing on this Euro he doesn't know how to play
it out now looking in one of the best you have the last laugh now he was
shaking his head there I think he's even surprised by how well he was
playing himself so I mean going into the next map that's gonna be huge a
momentum for Paper Rex so I do wonder if Liquid have answers going into
because we haven't seen Paper X play Haven in a while.
Yeah, I mean Paper X is going to be the naked.
My last time we saw them was back in the stage one final.
So comps are going to be different.
At the same time for Team Liquid, I think that they're going to be playing a very similar style.
We already saw GSR play the jet.
And for me, he didn't fully wake up onto the stage.
Just said he had a couple of rounds.
I thought maybe, you know, he wins a critical clutch against something.
Maybe that can be a turning point, but he's going to need to do a lot more
and a lot less time for this Liquid squad if they want to come back in the series.
100% there were those little moments where I thought that he was going to get the confidence get the ball rolling
But it never happened and then leading to that game. It did feel like
Camo at certain times really trying to be too hard to be the hero going kind of across the board
Outside of him with liquid two just trying to force too many plays
Which is understandable given the state of the game given two pistol round losses two bonus round losses
There is going to be a sense of desperation in the gameplay
they really desperately need to start off with a pistol round win here in this
time again. Oh absolutely in fact let's see what the coach has to say he's down
on the stage with Mika Phabs. I'm here right now with Lohan of Team Liquid now
I want to ask about your latest edition GSR of course how easy was his
integration into the team especially given the short amount of preparation
time that you guys had. Isn't integrating quite well honestly I think
is actually super comfortable on stage right now. Obviously the first map didn't
weigh the way we wanted and that's fine. I think the next map is going to be better
and I think he's going to be doing a good next map 100%. Just got to get those
nerves out of the way, right? Well, excited for you guys to make a comeback.
Well, coach says we're gonna do good on the next map. That's I hope. That's step one.
Yeah, that's step one to bringing us through the full series and bringing us
the last time as you mentioned
that we saw paper X play this
was over in stage one in the
lower finals against global
eSports and they leaned into that
double duelist jet Phoenix.
But then I think we also saw this
for liquid liquid also playing
the jet Phoenix. Although even
they played quite a few times,
but it's more to mix results
domestically. I think this is
one of those maps again where
they will do these more aggressive
get shut down with Kama stepping forward and and getting knocked out. This is
another one of those maps where they're playing very similar style, but
something needs to change and how they approach these fights because if
something continues to do what he did, see, I'll still see a chance. The liquid
cope is really the latter half of this map pool being completely outside of the
realm of PaperX recent comfort zone. Going to Haven they haven't played and
then if Liquid take this map, then they're going to the Lotus which
PaperX have been avoiding as well. That is your cope. Yeah, there's about
All that can be offered at this point.
But I do think there is some significant weight to it.
If Liquid do get the ball rolling here,
if they actually win their first pistol
round in this series, maybe even convert the bonus on top
of that, get themselves into the driver's seat.
GSR starts to feel a little more confident on the stage.
If Camo is picking some better timings,
not getting shut down, there is a world
where Liquid get back into this on their map pick.
Sure.
Is it Koto?
See, that's the thing.
If you're a fan, that's the cup that you got to drink.
The problem is, I'm actually more scared of a PaperX that we haven't seen play a map
in a while, than I'm scared of Team Liquid playing the tried and true once again for
them.
PaperX, okay, we don't know anything that we can predict on this map.
We don't know what they're going to bring us.
We can play our system, but we just so our system gets systematically deconstructed
by PaperX back on the set.
Yeah, you know what?
The thing about PaperX, especially against Liquid, they could be up 11-1.
doesn't mean that they have won just yet. There is something about this team that
makes you love them and makes you hate them in moments too. So Liquid again,
maybe it sounds like a cult, but they do find themselves usually in the second
half of that game. That's fair. And look, what I saw from Liquid that was
actually exciting on a send was a few big rounds from individual players. You
think that, what, 2v5 from Kamo getting those first two kills as well as
Nats coming up clutch deep in the round. I'm also thinking of multiple
rounds where they were just getting the two or three kills as a stage wall is
getting placed kicks in particular so we saw some glimpses of the individuals but
never saw it sort of like the full package of a team in these rounds to
really stand a chance wow we are getting this something you're only
Phoenix we're getting kicks Harvard this is a complete the ball I'm more
insurance raise well the raise your harbor is crazy a full pivot from
team liquid after not changing anything on a scent not only do we see kicks play
the harbor that's completely different but GSR is Yoru that is what I am
looking at this was the change that was promised when GSR came to the team
flexibility in that secondary duelist position and now we get it with their
backs against the Lovers BRX. I'm so excited we're also seeing Forsaken on
the Astra that Big Rex has it it's very seldomly uses the Astra ever
since Mine Creek has dropped off the roster but looks like they're
changing things up a little bit. Are you liking this Phoenix Euro combo?
The Phoenix Euro on PaperX? I mean, yes, that is a pretty potent combo on this fight.
Especially, yeah, with the Yoru buff, it is way better right now.
I'm so stunlocked on this solo harbore on Naven. I've never seen this before.
T.L.A. playing with five. I've never seen this.
Insane Ultimate's exec with, we gotta be tracking that early in the game.
All right, well, we're really excited. I don't know how the cast is
is you're feeling caperate spin, Achilleos, any thoughts?
No, he said no.
No.
I don't really know what to make of this,
but I think that we're going to be in for a good time.
That's all I can really say.
Solo Harbor on Haven, going up against an Astra,
and as Victoria just said, this
is not a pick that PaperX really lean into at all anymore.
No, the whole thing's just wild.
I mean, I have no idea what to make of this.
I knew coming into this map that it
It was going to be uncharted territory in some manner or another.
And this is even more, we're off the map here.
This is pre-historical.
I have no idea what to expect in this one.
So let's just get into it, find out what we're going to see.
There's a lot of that KJU till here on the A.
So it's kind of anticipation, but Paper X
is widely going to be avoiding the nanos.
And they're going to get the confirmation
on the NASA's position.
Kerbal is going to be sent out there as the spot as the bats will get overwhelmed particularly if I am able to find that kill.
She tagged off, has the blaze, while they are going to get some healing going.
Well, Persecutive is going to be chasing forward.
Oh, this is, oh my gosh, Persecutive just threw the smoke.
Something falling out the tube.
End of the round.
DeVy finds the final explosive stuff from Paper X.
They just, this is kind of what you are used to seeing even though you and I haven't been seen this much in recent history.
I did just run them over.
It's another pistol three to zero now here for Paper Rex.
The Desker's talking about wanting to see Liquid
get the ball rolling early.
And again, they just end up falling to the wayside here.
I mean, I have so much to talk about with the way
that Team Liquid approaches the rounds
after they win the pistol, the next couple of rounds
in their economy and some other things.
Just not getting a chance, too,
because they're not getting there.
And when you have this race,
you want to be getting those ults online as quickly as humanly possible.
Camel will be able to grab that orb outside of a, but we'll take on the seat
divide around into mid as the trademark will get broken.
The less the device sees, the more the paper X can infer that this is going
to be that mid approach.
And now he spots him out swinging in, ends up within the shots of
Marshall, but he collected.
We're checking from in the, but has to back away.
Look at this, all of Paper X is rotated over, catching Nath completely off guard.
Pursing him, bringing him, bringing it back to parody now, 4v4.
He'll be the only one playing forward here on the site.
The wall goes up, sees to delay, with what Doc's got out.
They quickly overwhelm the enemy Faye now, Pursing him with that pistol,
trying to see if he can get anything else, but he's just going to be getting a death.
thought he'll ever gonna be bleeding out.
He's trying to stick off of this defuse.
He cannot do so, but this is a ton of damage dealt.
While it is not the round going the way of Team Liquid,
they get so very close, and it's technically a Red Bull clutch.
Yeah, I mean, I think here for Paper Rex just trying to get ahead of the curve
of what Team Liquid wants to do on this retake,
and that's being really aggressive towards their window position
where DeVy saw so much contact, but they actually rewrap back in towards their spawn.
There's one and that catches paper X a little off guards. They have to go for these fights over towards long
It got a little bit spicy, but they're gonna come through hang on to the vandal and
Look at this by
Look at this though paper X is buying. Yeah, fully into this
Only one half armor, but no outlaw inside either way
They're trying to go for another bonus
Locked us down to Seward, quickly cleared out.
Rally in the main, nothing gonna be spotted.
Three players near enough by, 14 liquid.
Some fast pivots available, but there's no gate crash situated at the moment, so it's
gonna have to try to hook it over.
Meanwhile, Trax, he'll define a one, something gonna be shut down to the entry.
Player deficit now for PRX.
And as the buy and end, he'll be able to find one of these, but if he's taking
But before that, no shot flying through as it is just chaos here on their site.
But Kicks will be able to get them over the line.
Two players surviving.
Team Liquid closed out the anti-bonus.
You're already seeing some of the theory here for Team Liquid in terms of how they're going to implement this harbor
using those coves aggressively to cover their positions, to try to take these bites against paper wrecks.
And it's working pretty well in this round for sure.
They're able to dodge that hot, able to anticipate the way that something is going to TP into the site off of the back of that Util,
and able to deal with it really effectively.
So some nice pieces of the puzzle that's really well put together by Team Liquid.
A pretty readable round from the macro perspective for PaperX.
Probably one of the few that we've seen so far here from them in Shanghai.
Oh, Nass just kicks things off, takes Forsaken out.
Second down, but look at this. I mean something is forcing outlaw into this, but he's looking at half armor and GSR has it outlaw of his own. There it goes.
That's right on the floor.
Pack this round up.
Yeah, there's gonna be Team Liquid dying in two to two, barring Divay and Jing.
Pulling off something that would be absolutely jaw dropping.
You think pretty undoable, especially with that.
Yeah.
And now with that, Campbell has the showstopper online going into the next round.
Flawless here for Team Liquid to bolster the economy.
That is a massive round win as they tie it.
I mean Paper X took a pretty big gamble into that bonus, effectively going for a four-spy.
He don't come through with it.
So now that outlaw that Team Liquid loves comes into play.
It doesn't need to be really used here, because Campbell, very sharp with the ADS.
And that is clean work from them at long a paper rex never really able to break through the buys gonna be a little bit weird
But it's all half armors aside from Dubai
GSR didn't really have to do much of anything in that previous round now can absolutely feast
Double blast back forward over the window or beyond the one from the haunt
Back pulling away in space then she can either be given up, but this also plays GSR forward
They have to be so careful on this cross now
seemingly aware I don't know if they're gonna be ready for him to be that tough
in and divide definitely not ready for that he's just playing the same angle that
he did in the pistol this time it's a jump on them another kill now is in
beat numb the wiser cheese are played in very nicely
this might can maybe get planted here but that showstopper still available on
this point I think you really just want me to want to try to clear that
Jin commits to run it back to this.
Kerbal going to be sent out, but yeah,
Carol just chokes that showstopper right at his feet.
Jin dead for Zeke and trying to play point,
but he can only take one down with him.
Something had an ace clutch in the previous map,
but there is no way in hell that he's
going to get this 1v4.
The defuse will just get stuck.
He's going to wander off to save that gun.
And Team Liquid will gain the lead.
Should be a really interesting battle
in terms of how both of these teams want to play their post-plants versus retakes.
They have so much util on both sides for these situations.
You know, with Paper Rex, you've got the Astra, you've got the Phoenix.
You've got a lot of ability to stall out from range.
And even more so for Team Liquid, especially on these retakes.
And like the way the Team Liquid is using these walls,
using these coves to make sure that their retakes can be safe and successful.
And that's going to be three in a row for them.
We're going to see a timeout potentially is my big question because yeah
Alex wants to talk things over a little bit here
About how they're approaching some of these rounds, you know, obviously paper x has been widely avoiding this map
They've been banning it in fact for the most part. So this one has been kind of a pain point for them
But they had a tough choice to make, you know, was it going to be
Either the abyss or the haven here in our coinbase win condition
They go for the Haven as their, you know, map of kind of discomfort that they have to allow through
It's gonna be a rough from here
And just that solo Vandal armor how to be bought on top of that for something
As you know that that outlaw is still in the mix. There's been no real reason for GSR to abandon it
Not cash a plenty
But after that big buy, trying to get that bonus converted, the economy has certainly been wobbly
here for PRX, so getting full armors online has not really been able to do so.
This is where Team Liquid has been at their best, is when they're able to get these snowballs
going and it's off the back of these outlaws that they're able to just keep you so uncomfortable
before they see when those full armor buys.
Something that PaperX does not want to do.
PaperX is constantly trying to cut corners with their economy.
So this is the kind of situation that Team Liquid wasn't able to find on Ascent.
G.S.R. trying to play this one quietly, but that's just going to be called by a strike.
Something finding that kill. Now the Uroa all alone here back site.
Clear that haunt. Short hop on that gate crash. Makes his exit meanwhile Cosmobot has been called in.
I'm going to be clear. Chang able to find it. The Uroa now dead.
Swear to the corner one! There's that!
Get the collet kill, on the kicks, get the 4k and get some flawless something that is unacceptable.
I am just flabbergasted with something here today.
This is another round.
He just does stuff he has no business doing.
Let's see this again. Oh my god. They just lined up through the box. Oh my goodness.
Michael, what happened?
Well, right back into the action. They crash. Rather, the Metro tracks forward.
He's gonna get his weapon and I just come down camo GSR
I insist, I'm gonna be open to kick plays a man!
Big style Ching!
He cleans up the kill under the eye.
What in the hell is happening in this round?
Something now the spot out knows that he's gonna be tagged low,
but hops to go for the safer approach.
Still chasing forward though.
Will collect his pound of flesh.
Now a 3D twosome stability found from Paper Rex.
Kicks of reading this incredibly well, but I think I feel like I have to rely on Trex
to find an opening.
He's on that approach.
I'm going to have to try to check out the copy, but it's going to be in the other counter
swing.
So ready and for sake, it wins his fight, Paper Rex.
Two rounds in a row, and now back into a one-round lead.
This was the most Paper Rex round from Team Liquid, and they couldn't quite get it
done.
It looked like for a moment they were going to have the opportunity.
sending everything in the kitchen sink here at a lobby and even though they get
some big kills paper X is just collecting on other parts of the mass
there's spreading they're going towards C and something wins on his back today he
is absolutely flying right now and he has been on his feet two rounds in a
row economy's a little bit wonky for team liquid very important round for
them here in this half.
It's what a force invested behind this judge for divide.
So once again to afford post plant position, but look at the double stack.
At that site entry in the long flash going to be sent through.
He's connecting.
Nate's going to be sent up and over the top.
That punches him out into the open for seconds.
Going to be taken down by dead to that paint shell.
Something goes back.
One looks really little bit more.
But it's going to be GSR instead.
Coming away with three.
But Jane.
Quickly strikes him down, and he's gonna go chasing forward.
Is that going for the plan?
And the double-tank, but she gets it done!
Another red bull clutch as he pulls off the 3K.
I am just astounded.
Jin is playing with such porosity here.
He is so fast.
I mean, I am just blown away with the speed and the tempo
that Paper Rex is willing to play.
But that right there is ridiculous.
Gave Nat a moment, but couldn't convert.
Jin finds the headshot on Maria, just, and that's got him up too.
Paper Rex able to put Team Liquid onto a half-bi.
One Fandal, one Bulldog, one Guardian.
Early damage found onto the bi.
Hoken proud through the smoke, trying to see if they can catch him
with his stray here on the Nat, but...
So they just get a little insert here.
Jane going to be tucked away in cubby.
But now they're looking to reaggress forward.
And Team Liquid with numbers on the side
should be able to save them off.
This is very aggressive from Dubai.
Yeah, it is.
And it's punished very quickly.
Full flash onto his teammate.
It's just going to be Paper X now backing away.
Something eyes in towards B. With that Guardian in hand,
GSR gets the jump, gets the kill.
Big, big moment there for GSR and now the walk out of garage camera with another.
Spike is going to be collected but where are you meant to go? This is a gorgeous round for Team Liquid.
Given the half investment as well, it's Tlex with that vandal will shut down Jing.
It's looking like upgrades across the board here for Team Liquid.
Do not want the Paper Rex to run away with this map for sake and now all alone.
and the stacked in mid ready and waiting.
Slammages to get one and nothing more.
Cameroon have to shut down three players to survive,
weapons collected and Team Liquid still chasing
Paper Rex on the scoreboard.
It's a beautiful pre-barrier read by Nats.
He's got four players here from Team Liquid
and catch Paper Rex very off guard.
They're not anticipating that there's going to be
going to be any kind of forward setup at the front of sea there.
Instead, they're thinking they can maybe disrespect
that cove a little bit, get a little bit further forward.
But now, operator going to be in the hands of something.
Paper Rex economy, it's heatering just a little bit now.
Couple big ults as well.
14 liquid, four retakes.
And Trazegov's just dead.
That's just smoke's gone.
All of that's utilt situated here on the A side
to slow down the approach.
Should Paper Rex end up committing to this.
Looks like they're going to do just that.
One of the back is available from Jing, but for now,
clear of the alarm bot, NATO 2 delay.
One of the back going to be committed as they push through the wall.
Does it give him an opportunity at all?
Boombot, he'll just shrug that one off, goes rushing forward,
and he'll leave the spot under the chair,
so we can find that kill, now something chasing forward.
Gonna have to try to pack away as the reckoning comes in.
The drop down out of heaven,
Demi gonna hold his own for one kill,
I'm gonna be struck down by Nats, and Kicks out, getting into the mix,
Massacre Stray and Team Liquid tie it up.
And this is exactly what I'm looking for out of Team Liquid
into this round.
A great opening kill.
Just catching Forsaken on the jiggle peak there is GSR.
They're going to scoop up that operator as well,
but it's those two ultimates that they're
able to combine there.
The Wombo combo.
Finding so many players on paper
racks with that reckoning.
Ooh, that was very, very good.
Great timing as well from treks on that haunt.
So that is a beautiful, beautiful retake being orchestrated
by Team Liquid.
Kind of what this cop is definitely designed to do.
Moments like that where you can string those alts together
and guess what?
They've got a couple more here coming into this one.
Showstop brand, that lockdown available.
Paper X currently leaning into the side of the map
where those alts are resting for Team Liquid.
Orb to be collected for sake and now
with a cosmic divide online.
Thelona ultimate available for them,
something one away from having a dimensional drift.
Once for now, this Jing strafing forward into the site
and shows Stopper beat down, but it is gone.
Snappy shot from the fire with a counter spam
through that smoke.
Treks is able to find Invy, stops the plant in its tracks.
You should run.
Well, let's check close, but when you hear a classic,
you should know that there's going
to be a judge behind it.
Meanwhile, Nats finding one to push forward into that cove.
Forsaken is dead. King now, the champion of one that has to make his exit. He's the tank, he's dead and it's just something.
He's gotta get a move on.
Collects the gun, but the fuse is just being stuck. The angle is not his. Nats has the elimination and Team Liquid have six.
I think, kind of surprising here, uncharacteristic for Paper Rex and for Versaica to not commit
that Cosmic Divide a lot earlier.
They could have made that plant safe and then they wouldn't have had it interrupted.
They could have set up for their post plants a little bit more comfortably, prevented that
spam down through the smokes.
Cosmic Divide blocked bullets and they go for the grab well push on towards that
lockdown and Team Liquid is so ready for it.
They just shut it right down and Alva's stress starting to show a little bit on the coach's
face from Paper Rex.
Look at this.
They're, they're, this is a great read.
I think they have Paper Rex dead to rights here if they commit to this B hit.
The noise is being made.
I'm just gonna say Camo, yeah, could just send out the ultimate from here, tuck into
the corner, Ching.
Not gonna be spotted quite just yet.
Camo, sooner rather than later, he's just gonna be dumping this over there.
He can't fight Ching once again.
Counter-Spring to Dubai, takes him low, can't quite take him down, knew while something.
Trying to escort him forward, jumps back over to the front of the P-Sight.
Certainly not where he wanted to go.
Well, that's, again, having forsaken Stumber, Cogman to Dubai has been called in, but already the rotation's coming through.
Is it just Indy all alone, walking up towards C, but has to just backpedal away.
This cosmic divide was meant to be a fake thinking that, you know, trying to sell to team liquid that they were going to be going A.
In fact, they tried to go C and something tries to double down and cannot win the fight against tracks.
Just holding the angle. You might be able to get a plant here as paper X, but 2v5 with Divy on 19 HP.
You would think pretty, pretty difficult.
30 seconds left.
Team Liquid wanting that lead at the half.
What can he hear?
I'm gonna be swapped over, plant to come in.
They are even gonna be smoking off the trademark,
so no early alert system here for Paper Rex.
This is a Team Liquid special, they love to do that.
This became all the more difficult for them.
Devine with this operator should be good for one.
The absolute worst time and all the while I think Trexquart blips, and he's gonna catch the shot.
A quick overwhelm on the Envy, and Team Liquid make it 7-5.5.
This is exactly what you're looking for here from Liquid.
A good bounce back after some rough rounds to start, and they get 4 in a row to finish the half.
Great stability, the players starting to feel a bit more comfortable here on the stage.
Stage!
Team Liquid can they seal the deal on their map pick will find out after the half.
The city of block becomes the city of thieves!
They plunder, they plilfer, and they persevere in Paris!
You win this!
Invade enemies!
Go to hell!
I am the leader of the race!
He's done it.
Back here with Nats, Nats, your speeches are iconic at this point in VCT.
I'm wondering how long have you been giving these speeches all the way since Stambe
Days?
No, I don't think it's from Gambili's, I think the moment I moved to Aicil, but I'm just saying what I feel in my heart and that's it.
So you're saying these are spontaneous, you don't come in prepared, you don't need like a cue card or something?
No, I don't, I don't know, I believe this kind of things you just say whatever you feel and that's it.
I don't even bring like a popes I want to speak about, I just say what I feel and that's it.
He's natural!
Welcome back. We're getting ready to go to the second half of our second map in our first
series here at champs Shanghai Rex for the moment trailing two rounds behind team
liquid see we found their form and their comfort here on their map pick up
haven yeah much needed stability for sure and GSR started to come alive he
finds 10 kills in that first half really set up for success in some of those
moments able to take it in to some positions that catch paper Rex really
out guard you know get him more comfortable on the stage find those
easy kills make it seem like he can absolutely go toe-to-toe with them so
that's a good start on this map on this half for liquid paper racks the question
is is a comp that I think has a lot of similar ideas in terms of happy to play
for retake you've got some great alts in the back pocket for those kind of
moments just like team liquid does are they gonna be able to match on their
defender side as they go for the big pushout and it looks like not much of
a brawl brewing kicks is just going to scale down in towards sewers double
swing across here triple Nance as well that allows him to send his wall over
into B that's all fake this is all lose yeah fine in that kill now in big gonna
be caught kicks able to take him down and team liquid they're looking for
that first pistol win of this series considering that check from behind
But Nats, he's already washing forward.
And he manages to fight one full battle,
he can take it down.
Fight down, A.
Don't flicks.
Really any help remaining here between the two
alive Paper Rex players.
A bit of a heal there for Qing.
He's not gonna be playing the GSR in quick reposition,
but Camel gets himself a second Qing.
Dad, the bottom is looking for anything that he can get,
but he can get nothing more.
First pistol of Team Liquid.
He stretched the lead now up by three.
Okay, great.
This is exactly what the doctor ordered here.
It is a very creative round using that cove to silently get down into sewers to send over the high tide and towards B from that position
That sets up camo for that first kill and kicks gets one of his own
Paper X gets stuck in sewers trying to find a way out
Now we get to look at the way that team liquid builds into this snowball potentially
They're gonna have a couple rifles
They're going to have the Marshall and then they're going to look to do a lot of damage in that bonus and try to go for those early outlaws
They're very fast walk into window
He catches gnats
Doesn't stick around to grab the gun though just makes his quick exit with the gate crash
Critical value gonna be found I
Need so much of this has come down to who's gonna be able to kind of
out read who on some of these earlier on aggressive positions and a site here
spotted by GSR. Careers have to make the call to go on the rotation. Jumping from
something good to be seeing one at long. And with that turret there you have a
lot more comfort to make this rotation.
We're gonna swing it out for a second and it's going to be struck down.
Two big kills here found for Camo. Divine out, pushed up into the window. Here's a
rotation coming in. Something gonna be struck down. Just start catching him
connect to the demo on their heels and for a second I thought treks was just
gonna be served up on a plot of the blast pack pushed him on to the angle from
camo he's still able to find that stability find the shot now it looks
like won't GSR will join that to the grave but otherwise it should be done
and dusted
I'm gonna be finding incredible damage, incredible value here.
Can he get anything more?
Gun can be scooped up.
Let's pull out a Util, though.
It's half of the views, the spot!
And now it's down to Trex.
Just gonna go tanking that hog, clears it.
And Trex knows he hasn't held it.
Some damage to be found, but this round is not gonna go paper-rex his way.
This is a tremendous damage done by Envy and it is going to really make the snowball so difficult.
Four team Liquid, they're not able to get through this cleanly, get able to anticipate the push out there from Garage.
GSR had been tucked into that position for quite some time.
Oh, an Envy!
The timing there. A little bit of a rise smile for GSR.
Maybe she's barely shrugged that off.
If you look, we'd still get that round win now.
They go into their bonus.
Double Stinger here. Quick space, going to be taken by something that has to give this up.
Backpedals away. Jingle the swing out into the open. Campbell going to be taken down from Forsaken and Platt.
Double Star is going to be situated for Forsaken!
She's getting cooked alive.
alive nearly a team kill off of blaze wall.
That would be pretty par for the course for paper X.
So, you know, I'm just not really that bothered.
Pixel angle here for something a garage.
Liquid not going to be given in the sight line.
Meanwhile, envy, same thing, but with an Odin.
Well, I mean, you're not hearing or seeing anything over towards a.
I think this is all just a bait for information.
Yes, we found a kill.
Back of sight.
That's an odin down.
Something out of garage will be able to get the trade keeps him in with the
advantage, but now that's on the approach to buy.
Not the wiser.
Turn to the side.
Why is the one.
It's a headshot.
I'm going to buy and take him a little bit lower.
No further kills.
We've got my Nats.
He's giving his teammates a chance though.
30 seconds left.
They found my track
By planted
Committed to one tucked away at hell the other behind the box. The body hasn't seen any movement there
It's trying to figure out where that trip got cleared from
Corporal sent the cubby checked
They're trying to narrow this down something
Tracks you tell it
It could be separate kicks, a lot of rescue.
Team Liquid still making a damn competitive.
HyperX will not allow for that bonus to get converted.
This is one of the first rounds that I could really
remember Nass being able to really enact on a lurk
and get some value out of it.
If he has a different gun in hand,
it's a very different situation.
He probably gets at least two.
That's something that HyperX is going
to have to be very aware of.
They had a pretty huge advantage in the gun department.
This means that Team Liquid not gonna be able to have
that outlaw that they love to get into the fourth round
if they win the pistol.
Just not able to really find the damage.
Indy is gonna have that Oden once again.
Rounding site, some big firepower,
but the showstopper available for Camo.
Spray and pray here from Paper Rack
to listen in with Team Liquid
and see if they can win the round.
Okay, supersonic, can you clone it?
Wow, there we go.
I will start, I will start.
I'm all right, I'm all right guys.
We are small crowd, we were still called to help.
I still don't know what to do, I'm first for this.
I don't like him man, you go.
Let's just wait, let's wait, let's wait.
I'm all right.
I'm ready guys, I'm first.
I'm picking the house.
I'm first.
I'm first.
One more, I'm first.
I'm first.
I'm first, I'm first.
I'm first, I'm first.
Go, go, go.
We keep sitting.
You're all right.
Maybe it was you, you're all right.
I'll go after him.
I'll go after him.
We play with high-cocks easy, we need to play with high-cocks.
I see a skill, do that.
Flash XC, you already.
I'm coming for you.
I'm coming for you.
I'm coming, I'm coming.
Okay, you come on, you're going from the ground.
Okay, can't be flunked or not.
No, no, no.
This one, this one's from the ground.
I'm right in front of you.
I'm in XC now.
Come on.
I'm out, I'm out.
In XC.
I'm in XC.
I'm in XC.
I'm delaying them so hard.
I'm holding XC.
Flash XC.
In XC.
Two out, XC team.
Take one, XC.
Yeah, it feels like they're not really sure of themselves.
They're hoping that something can get into the backlines and find some value from that gets some information, but it just takes so long.
They have to be so slow and methodical.
Good swing out there for Saken as well.
The timing for this retake once it gets going for Paper Rex. Pretty good.
It just, it took way too long and that's going to force another time out here from Alex.
He wants to take a little bit of a talk about this.
I think you're probably going to want to get a little bit more pressure towards A long early.
I think you're going to want to create some difficulty for Team Liquid.
I think that A site is going to be the more difficult as usual on this map to really
get these retakes going.
So you need to be very careful though because Team Liquid has shown that they have been
really good at having some ideas off of that Harbor Util, make it difficult to get any kind
of control established, because you can use that Cove really early, and maybe the Odin
is inferior, a good counter to it, but we haven't been able to really see the value to
shutting down an early Cove or something like that.
Envy's been kind of holding it at B.
And look at what Nats is doing.
He's got that outlaw in hand.
He is ready to go hunting.
And it is going to be half-armors pretty much across the board for Paper X.
Oh, something coming in with that fall.
Backing available.
A couple ults here for Paper Rex, very close to a strong, old cycle.
Ooh, that's what they do off this time out call.
It's just a tiny bit of damage dealt here onto the KJ.
Boom, all spot out.
Oh, something new.
It's the exit.
and stick around. Has that other gate crash sent very early on?
Yeah, they were looking for a little bait and switch there with device. Headhunter kind
of similar to what we saw in a scent, but Team Liquid sensing a little bit of weakness off
of that presence being shown here at grass. So they're thinking that A is going to be
wide open and they are mostly correct. And Invis, I don't know, he was just going
to full rotate off of this.
This is going to be another difficult position where I'm not sure how paper rex is going
to be able to start a retake.
I have Jinx on.
Slippin' with the Reveal, and G.S.R. they can call.
NB playing himself in brilliantly, but Nats and Batoate final shot.
Will connect, and Vi got to be taken down.
Jinx immediately going to be invested in the alt.
Right back forward, catches one, Nats, dead.
The ball is going to be sent forward.
I'm sure if you actually mentioned you got that one out,
either way the jump out going to be punished.
NB dead, can't have a lot to find for a second.
Something eliminated, and J falls as well.
These Harbor Wolves just giving them fits.
They try and try to push forward.
They are met with death each and every time.
Yeah, the theory here is incredible.
The macro reads even better.
But the way that Nats is so willing to fast pivot off
of some of that early contact, a good little individual effort
by Invy that doesn't really amount to much here,
his flood retake just completely shut down
even with the run it back invested.
Things are really starting to fall apart.
four paper racks.
That's both timeouts gone.
Two of your ults invested,
do you have another two ready to go?
The fly is dead.
As is the king.
It's just a massacre at A-long.
His team liquiders just running over paper racks,
round after round.
They're just so ready.
Kind of looking for that A-fight
and they find it, they take it.
Second is just hoping that someone goes pushing in that direction so he can upgrade his gun, otherwise they have to save.
Right.
You wouldn't expect here that they will, and the bad news to make this even worse for Paper Rack, they go for this aggressive fight.
None of the ult have to be used by Team Liquid.
They're gonna be coming through with three, probably four.
Send Treks to hunt.
Why not?
Oh, gets the kill.
gives them absolutely nothing only something to survive team liquid move up
to map point paper X
can't find their footing yet still here on this map and with Lotus living on the
horizon and given how the performances have gone on that map as well
suddenly this tips the balance absolutely right very much so team
Liquid has been stellar here. If not for the anti-bonus, it would be 12 rounds in a row.
Great movement there by Trex. That is a really nice anti-judge play.
And now you've got four alts that you have to worry about here as Paper Rex. They're gonna try to
take this A fight again. They're even bringing something over this time. There's that Vandal.
This is do or die on this map.
Going for the C's Molly, but
Liquid not keen to try to take this fight again.
Wants to try to set up for this B head.
Divide not too far away, but this lockdown should open up the space.
He's going to have to get it a little bit further away now.
He's still chasing forward.
There's no trademark here.
Fairly manages to work his way out of the earth, the player does end up getting detained.
Well, Jing, the approach here on the flank, unscouted, spotting out one.
Takes out Nats, Kerbalt, sent, Tracks turning south, but can't dodge the bullets, kills the reply.
However, we're going to be pumping out something to divide forward.
The judge rewarded something, climbs the lawn, and Envy gets the other.
The map not quite over yet, Paper Rex.
to manage the pickup of seventh round win, but still they're trailing by five.
They're able to find a really nice counter here to the lockdown, just inserting that judge right at the point of attack on to B.
Team Liquid never feels comfortable to go for the moment.
And Jengen goes all the way around the world.
Catches Team Liquid completely off guard. A nice flash there as well.
Check out the open for Divide.
Good flash for something.
So here the team worked that coordination
for Paper X able to come together.
Now it's still not thrilled.
They've given themselves some life.
Those are still a hell of a lot of work to be done here.
Obviously they want that 2-0.
It's gonna have to be done in OT.
Put a force on line and he'll be pumped here for Divide.
Nice track, just getting burned to the crisp.
A little bit of that.
just that decay damage coming through. So in the end he's actually quite helping.
Scary moment, but Plot's gonna be connecting there, Jhin gonna be good for Womba,
Camo gonna be good for two. Swing out something, try to steady it, but it came out escape.
Gets GSR and nothing more.
There's an alarm bot here.
There's an alarm bot here and there's also a showstopper in the hands of Camo that
should be able to bring this map to its conclusion. This feels inevitable.
I need a stop here.
A shaky attempt.
And there's highs on this.
Kicks around the corner.
Pages beating them eyes to buy now.
How did they do it all?
And it's going to be Ken instead.
Picking up the four piece.
13 to 7.
Team Liquid giving us a Mast 3 here in our opening series.
Well, you've got to like this Harvard pick.
It gave a ton of value for Team Liquid.
What a comp change for them.
A massive win, we go the distance, load us now
to determine which one of these teams will kick off champ Shanghai with a win.
I said keep inside your body
I couldn't catch myself right back
There's strangers in the dark
They're leaving with my heart
It's official, but it can't be more
Can't deny the fact that I'm alive
I'm afraid that I'm a liar
I'm not a liar
I need to go beyond
Take the two rocks, stick together the dark,
feel the dark.
Since the fish is too hot,
don't do the rock,
don't do the rock,
breathe the wind,
lift it back on the top,
leave the world behind.
Hold it, hold it,
stay in the world,
world, world, world, world.
Hello and welcome back to Champs and you might notice a new face here, it's Mel.
Surprise.
Welcome to the desk, you know, you've been touring Shanghai getting coffee made by a suit that it has it been
Dude, it has been a great experience. I feel like I've lived like four lives. Honestly, dude
The coffee was amazing by the way. Was that championship level coffee?
I don't want to spoil it and I don't want to jinx it, but we're gonna keep up between me and him
But it sounds like a good retirement plan, but back to this man who have really exciting one
I think, you know, at this rate, having a full series between these two teams is perhaps not so surprising and ender.
Let's first start with some of the ideas. Now we can see why GSR is coming into this roster. The new ideas, they brought into Haven.
I really loved it. First of all, we finally see GSR off the jet. So a huge comp change for Team Liquid where they're playing Vioro.
And a big style change as well. Going through so many midfights. We had, first of all, just GSR walking down mid-mid.
walking down mid-mid, look at this it's a vertical harbour wall, Yoru has ulted through all of this while it raises
Sprinting down a long, that round they were a little bit hit or miss
But I would say the pace at which team Likud was playing was wildly different to anything
We'd seen in stage two and wildly different to even what we saw in the first map. When you're looking at a comp with Yoru
You are expecting some level of aggression, but when it's paired with the harbour and you see those unexpected walls
It's just so chaotic even for a team like paper X. Who's used to playing super unorthodox?
I mean teams in a pack are crazy sometimes
Even they get caught off by that and I just want to say props to team liquids coaching staff
Like that was a really cool execution of a really unique call. I think that's a thing though paper X is not used to other people doing crazy
Like yeah, they're like, oh my god, why didn't we think of that first now speaking of the harbor you and Wyatt were
absolutely going bananas over this
Harbor pink so how do you think of it
now well honestly I thought it was
pretty cool they a lot of interesting
ideas but for me the big weakness on
paper of this comp was gonna be there
a retakes right like without a paranoia
without like a bleach on any sort of
like hard-thearing utility yeah like you
need to be anchoring on that site or
flooding around the map instantly
exactly or praying that your enemy
doesn't go to the A site in the
first part of the half so you can
play with the ult on the retake I
I'm gonna look at this round where Payprex waited 10 rounds to hit the A site and there's a Harbor Olt available
Let's go ahead and play this round out because it is over in the blink of an eye
The second the spike plant is when the Yorold comes in to spot everyone
And there's a big haunt that pings out these players in the corner right device trying to play close
But he's fully pinged up everyone is near sighted from the Harbor Olt and all of team liquid know where they are
So even though you're lacking the the basic abilities to recluse the site
It's way too long and ran them over.
The thing with playing Harbor as well is like you said you do need to play really
strictly into those win conditions because you don't have that baseline of
detail but what it does reward is creativity. Like you said earlier that
vertical wave in mid how they approach this airy take a combining that with
the haunt it has to be a really creative flow from seem to go to pull it
off and we saw it consistently in all rounds and in standard rounds and it
came pretty close at half time there and Team Liquid if you wanted a pistol
win from them. We finally got one in the second half and you know maybe it was thanks to the
harbour. Again a cool idea and this is kind of like an old-school harbour while back when
people are playing it for a second on this map where you run down sewers throw this
purple to fake out the B hit. Now because there's a guy playing in sewers paperx weren't
exactly fooled by this play but it was still Team Liquid fighting themselves out
of a tough situation and still using this comp in early creative manner. I think
the whole strength of harbour compared to other controllers is let's say you're
playing on this map. You smoke along for the default. Now you only have one smoke left
to actually execute B or C. You have to give something up there. You have to take those
duels. But when you play Harbor, you have essentially two kits of controller utility.
You can use that Cove at A like they did on the pistol and then use the wave to cut
everything off on B. So you kind of get the best of both worlds and it's really
good for stopping the floods which everyone is doing. It's extremely met on Haven right
now.
You know, to put some theory crafting out there, do you think this Harbor would
work on other maps for Team Liquid. If they can make it work on Haven, I was not a Harbor
believer until I saw that and I'm on board. I want to see more like if they're going to
be creative with it, no stale like boring stuff. I really want to see them pull it out.
I really like it on Summit, for example. I think the Harbor has a lot of power.
Yes, so good on Summit, so good.
Give me more of that and honestly just this way that Team Liquid is playing with
so many different like fighting pieces, I would love to see them play something
similar to this over on Lotus where they have all these metal tools that can combo together
to fight like great things to clear away back Rebel because they've been playing the jet
on this map in the big 2026.
I want to see the new ideas because full well pull it out here now liquid is really
good on Lotus.
They came really over into an overtime back in Toronto against paper X paper X used to
on the other hand used to be fantastic on Lotus but not lately they have lost the
last four Lotus maps.
I don't know what happened to them, but they it's not working out for them right now and liquid right now
I would I would say they have the upper hand going into the final lap
Yeah, it was something we were looking at when the map pool came out was like maybe PRX
Maybe they needed to owe this series to end up winning and especially now with team liquid dealing a little bit more confidence momentum
GSR finding his footing on a more comfortable agent
I mean used to be a jet one trick boy on the gore
He was looking fantastic out there getting over those nerves of not number one. I think this is very doable now
I think the team liquid like you said they need to lean into GSR is kind of flexibility
newfound obviously like you said he's the deaf player but the Glover hate the roster
move he is showing that he has some flexibility in other agents like we just saw in Haven.
So if we see them lean into that I think Lotus could be another weak spot for PaperX.
You know you guys were reaching in the harbor you know potentially on Lotus.
I have to say though the way Liquid plays Harbor it's probably far less boring.
I've heard other players say they don't like playing Harvard.
It's, you know, you kind of stand in the back and throw all the stuff forward.
But the way they're playing it could be a lot of fun over on Lotus.
I like it. I mean, honestly, with the amount of like different like set plays,
they went through the whole playbook.
They showed everything.
They did so many different.
It wasn't like you were defaulting with the hard ball.
A lot of teams will do that.
It was a lot more creative.
Now, we're not going to see the Harvard come in, but critical change.
The only change in the comp 14 liquid is a hard pivot from the jet to the
Yoru on the GSR. Mel, how do you like that swap of the agents?
I think the biggest difference between Yoru and Jett is just how deep of a pick can you
reach for when you are on the defense. They're starting to attack you, but when they do smart,
what I'm looking at is that Jett can take really, really specific fights, but you kind
of know where she's zoned off to after she's taken the fight.
Because the gash is so short compared to the TPU.
Compared to the TPU, you could be anywhere. And so I'm looking again at GSR, looking
at these deep fights that he's going to take, similar to what he did on Haven,
you're running that double
duelist. Now we didn't get to
chat to you about your
predictions earlier today,
Mal. We saw they had paper X
on the board, but now that
we're on the third map, is
that still how you feeling?
You know, I am. I'm a paper
X believer. I'll show my bias
here. Okay, listen, I will. I
think that you know the
chain. It might be too
little too late for team
liquid and paper X still,
although they've lost the
past four lotuses, I think
they can really lean on the
what they built for the
past year on this map.
last year on this map. At the end of the day, they did beat them on Lotus last year.
That is true, but that was a whole year ago and let's see how they will be doing today.
We got the third map of the first series of today back to you, Achilles and Papyrthin.
It was a whole year ago, it was a very different roster and it was a whole absolute mess
of a map when they played on Lotus. We'll see. We get another absolute scrap between
these two squads Lotus will be the decider raise at Yoru V raise Yoru this
is a damn near mirror matchup just those sentinels the key difference yeah very
intriguing here but for team liquid going back towards GSR on the Yoru looked
much more comfortable on that agent then he did on the jet so am I gonna set up
the flash here early on that's just doesn't damage to envy so look at
Something pop flash out of the smoke instantly has the headshot.
The rotation start to come through.
He crashes over to join in and reinforce at this seaside along that side to buy.
They've been pushed all the way back though.
The site widely having to be given open.
This plant can now be committed to.
The damage can be found in exchange, but something down to 45.
Paranoia ends up flying.
They scouted the wins.
So, Markro's gonna be quickly cleared out for second lead of the timing.
Manch to the bind.
It takes down Trex, but Campbell fast on that swing.
Gets out of elimination.
In-B now, eliminated as well.
Clean shot from Devine with that sheriff in hand.
Manch to get another piece of the action, but Campbell!
Oh, he gets a 3K, but it cannot get the finisher.
Something will have the defuse, and Paper Rex will have a fourth pistol round win
in this series.
Yeah, and a really crucial one for them.
This is the defender's side of Lotus, which generally,
believe it or not, PaperX very good on this side of the map.
Yes.
They are on a nice edge here, because Camo
is continuing what he started on Haven.
He was instrumental, 14 liquid, and almost, almost,
you can see it in the coaches.
They know how close that was.
But Forsaken, trying to bring the energy,
trying to bring the win back into the sales of PaperX.
Can't be too bummed about that one.
look at the pies here. Full armor guardian for camo. Outlaw with full armor for gnats.
It wrecks. I'm not sure how ready for this are going to be. They do have the full armor
ready so maybe they're anticipating at least one of these weapons.
For sure. An outlaw has definitely got to be in the back of your mind. But the extra
layers to this probably not.
Well now they have that confirmed. At least the one.
Guarding the hands of Camo, still very much a mystery.
Things to buy. Jiggle peeking it's stairs.
He didn't give him a glimpse of anything and he can clear out and wisely swaps over to the knife to clear that prowler.
Still looking to try to play entry here. Swings in for the buy.
It's going to be faster on the draw.
Kitch is in the disadvantage pushing that smoke.
Meanwhile, the charge is something to poke and probably that corner.
Comes away with that elimination and B swaps to the classic.
Classic jumping right click kicks dead
All the cheeky attempt
He's
What a play oh
Oh GSR almost had one of our early plays in the tournament here. Oh he's so good. Oh that is so clean. That's shot on the MV. Beautiful.
The classic forsaken. Spin the win. Oh man. Not on a deep use this time but.
They're not going to be cheering after that one either.
No, that is so much damage dealt.
We're crying because of some of the investments though.
Team Liquid will have to try to seek some for this stability in that economy
so not much else is going to be brought forward into this round.
It's not going to be that bad in the sheriff.
Loops on the one.
They're going to quickly take the space, but India on that repeat from Upper.
They're going to shut down the enemy rays.
Locks on for GSR.
Kicks won't take down Jing.
Smuggle the one. Again. Why don't you get the double face here?
He's going to swap the gun and he gets into the action.
That's falling. Just kicks the widely. Try to get this plant in.
Get a little bit of extra cash and see if he can maybe come away with another kill.
Find some damage. Otherwise, Envy with three will get Paper Rex the same on the board as they convert the bonus.
the bonus. A tremendous work here by Envy up on top B. He is being an absolute menace up there,
making it so difficult for Team Liquid to get anything going. They're able to scale forward,
but that's when Envy starts striking with some really accurate pull-off shots. Gets a couple
headshots in there. Devine shows up. It takes him out for paper wrecks to make their rotations
kind of cleanly again at that Nats effect. He's always going to be at the back of your
You have to clear every single angle, every single corner.
So these fast rotates that you normally
want to play as Paper Rex are going to be that much more
difficult.
And you could see the struggle in just the mental aspect
of the game.
Even though Paper Rex comes away with a pretty clean win,
it didn't look as comfortable as it could have.
Now you're getting the first proper rifle round,
giving it the legs.
Those round two investments from Team Liquid,
his hats set them back considerably.
They're all able to find the round win here.
They are absolutely going to be on Struggle Street.
probably going to be kicking yourself a little bit going for that aggressive buy,
but confident in your defender side for sure.
We're going to be team liquid. Wow.
They're anticipating aggression from paper racks.
That boom bot does get cleared.
She's about to say you do have the dimensional trips online after GSR insane
heroics attempt of the clutch spot out onto at least two players.
He's lost out, pop-flaps gonna be set, he's looking for anything that he can get but he's not gonna be able to find anything other than a bullet to the face.
He takes it down, drop off that rubble down, camo is able to find Forsaken, but it's quite a bit of damage in that exchange.
They're in with a shot as a power scout on the wall, but he just guns down the remaining two.
Paper racks, shut down a liquid on their first rifle round, 4-0 on a start.
And this is a big round win for paper racks because they're going to be able to keep both the nightfall and the steel garden some great
anti-executive retake alts that they're going to have available
able to dodge out one of the big alts from the side of team liquid there with that dimensional drift being used
Dubai very impressed with himself there team liquid
Wants to take a time out. They do have that showstopper coming into the next round. So
So, Lowhand wants to get in here on the Coinbase Wind Condition and make sure that one of the
wind conditions for that round, that big, big ultimate from the Rays, is going to be able
to find some value, probably want to talk about how they want to approach the early
parts of the round as well.
One thing that Liquid does struggle with on this map is actually creating Rubble Space.
Now, that was a different comp.
That was the Jet Rays.
This is the Oral Rays a little bit easier in some ways, but still not going to
be all that comfortable for them.
So creating some space on the extremities is something they can have a little bit of a
difficult time with when I was watching some of the VODs.
See if this is going to be enough to try to steady the ship here.
You can see how far across the board, I thought maybe something would go for an outlaw here,
but for now it just has a guardian in hand.
To also work with on both sides.
And like you said, that showstopper, it could be monstrous.
I am pretty scared with any so far
Thank you hit every single one on Haven he's been very good with them
Despite some of Jin's best efforts there on Haven to try to catch him a little off guard
He never fell for any of paper Rex's trickery. He did have one on a oh, you're right. He bought space
kicks
With the reposition that shows over
No, it's the Up and Over and Cal is catching up!
Nice to speak, claims the territory, but the Jax after getting forward will end up dying
something right with a counter swing and then be eventually able to flush that
out from behind, behind the mount.
The boom-bot kill into the mix.
It's another round here for Paper Rex.
This is huge.
I mean, Paper Rex just reads this so nicely, able to use that timeout against Team Liquid there.
And they have their full forces ready at C-Mount.
That is crazy that that rocket gets that kill.
And then he gets a boom-bot kill the boot.
It's a nice 2k4 camo, but that's it.
That's it for Team Liquid.
And that is a big smile from Divy.
And there's that outlaw you were looking for.
Something is going to be bringing that to Bear over at the A site,
but I don't know if they're...
Where kick's got over there?
Oh, they are very low level there, but now,
like their exit, boom-bop, chasing,
Campbell gonna be in the damage
if he tries to exit this time, Ching.
Will be able to get the better of him.
Just running out of bullets at a critical juncture there.
Walk over the wall,
that's to take the space,
gets out in front of the thorns.
Meanwhile, Trex watching this,
playing it behind, it's gonna get the headshot.
Takes out Ching.
Now they know, there's that second layer,
the Vi trying to hold his own,
He ends up getting picked apart.
Pursing forward, scouted.
Still, will you tell it hand?
Where's that safe cone?
It doesn't matter.
Bikes down.
Kexil dive advance has a backstab.
And how is this the round?
Petain liquid to get on the board.
Pops the clone.
They know exactly where Envy's at.
The hunt over the top of paranoia.
They'll hold him back.
The gate crashed taken back out the mound.
Indy now at a 1v3 having to try to clutch this one up
Planted for them though
Turn of the flash
Doesn't really matter
Cut in hand it's gonna be a thrifty a massacre one of that here for team liquid to get their first round win a tremendous work here by treks on the backside
Great angle to hold and take there with just a ghost in hand
This is what I wanted to see this is beautiful work from him
doubles down just a ghost then uses that prowler gets the identification that
there's even another layer there another round where Nats is able to do
NAS things and that's it that's all she wrote
Team Liquid needed that and I think Alex a little bit frustrated with some of
those contact plays something gonna go for the operator now had plenty of
money this is first off of this series at least it feels like maybe
be added on a set but certainly was very absent on Haven regardless quick take a
space here at sea. Spike could be passed over to GSR. I want to put him two charges away
from having no okay we'll pass it back to Kicks. That's that showstopper.
Even if you try to check forward smoke, ammo will still fall. Weapons gonna be
stolen away. That's still Garda's now. The night ball goes across. Kicks able to
denied that TP4, but am I still able to find that kill?
Meanwhile, that's why you're never gonna find him.
Whoa!
Exactly.
He's gonna line up and have another nerve, that's invested.
Together the smoke is forsaken, cannot find the elimination.
And now you're left with a conundrum.
You try to clutch it, you can't.
Something doesn't go for the same.
He loses the up.
And Paper Rex loses another round.
Oh, and they lose more than just a round.
They lose a bunch of ultimates.
They throw everything in the kitchen sink at this one, and it looks great.
I love the ideas there, staggering them, but Nats, disgusting.
That is unreal work from him.
But they don't have the smokes up.
Part of the problem here, four paper Xs, they're going for this retake, is there's
about 13 seconds left onto Forsaken's smokes, so they're trying to scale forward
without that safety to cover off the C mound position.
Because they think with all those ults that they just used,
they've cleared everything, they're good to go,
but they kind of forget about a very important piece
of that puzzle.
That's that mound spot.
And Nats punishes them mightily.
So Alex immediately, doesn't like what he's seeing.
Once the time out after the back of that,
five in a row there to start for Paper Rex,
And just like we saw in a set, a couple rounds in response
from the side of Liquid, Steve Burex
needs to figure out what was working before
and maybe just calm down a little bit
and try to get their heads back on straight.
There's been a couple of these rounds where they just
get a little discombobulated and they can't really
keep track of everything that's going on.
Well, like you said, Alex wanting the team
to stop playing so defaulty, get a little more aggressive
It feels like we're starting the tip a little too far in that direction and now you have to ring them back in
These rounds give it over the liquid have been absolutely
chaotic from the side of Paper Rex
Even antsy with their old usage
Central drift half the ready TP forward just take a little bit of additional space jing trying to escape will be able to do so
But as he plays his beat GSR has the exit
Thanks, you're down. That's a weapon now lost
He does have a great blood hand for Sagan.
Bail something on a one.
He leads up Cam off something.
Swing!
Out for backside!
He gets two!
The bandit!
Mealy goes into a dimensional trip to the zone.
Not necessary as Indy has the timing and it's going to be another MasterCard thrifty.
This paper racks off the timeout call.
It will slow Team Liquid down in their very own tracks.
Well there something goes again.
Again, bailing water out of the paper X boat.
Great individual effort there by Envy.
He was quickly scaling off of that too.
Kind of doing exactly what you and I were talking about,
where they need to get proactive on the map.
They need to be aggressive.
And he's there in time anyway at the very end,
but winning that fight against Nats.
Something, shake it his head a little bit in disbelief.
Given an opportunity, and he will collect.
Uh-oh, boy.
Well, does manage to try to escape that,
but cannot escape the spray and pray they're from Cheng.
This little trap set up.
A prex rewarded.
Something now.
Chasing forward.
Nearly has a lined up, but he's going to be the one taking down.
Not a wall bang to be found.
Meanwhile, Max, he's got himself lurked forward.
The cage popped and forsaken.
He got inside of it before that noise trigger
would have been heard.
You'll find the punish brings it back into a 3v3.
But Liquid's still overall looking favored there.
The ones playing with numbers, the other ones clustered together and they have Jin.
Team 4, 1 up for Jin.
Spike down, B.
As he looked behind, another two kills before finally falling.
That's crazy.
They read that.
They pinged at exact position that Jin was in out on the map and they still get
outdone.
now in a 1v2 to try to get Team Liquid halfway to tying this up.
Get the third round win.
Spike is in hand.
It's an MTA site.
Be quickly halved by closing in on his position
on this flank approach.
They know well it's going to be A.
They're going to be pretty spread out.
I think Trex is going to have a good opportunity here
to convert on this 1v2.
Players from Team Liquid, great in the clutch.
Treks.
Let's just take an angle now.
Back off that one, but now they've got the spot out the top of the door.
Treks' attention being tied in multiple directions,
but he relaxes off to go for the join up.
Let's just take it, just jump to score, try to play a man.
Oh, then he'll get the chance to isolate.
Somehow both players managed to survive.
We're having a bit of a chuckle about it.
With that a few is paper X already ensuring that they will have a lead at the half
And I think if tracks just holds this angle he might give himself a really good opportunity to convert
Again that with that rubble control
Able to be established early by paper X give them some nice advantages in the beginning half of the round
The team liquid almost fighting back. I really felt like that was doable for tracks
Let them from the best just not quite
And you can see he's he know I think he knows and I think he's like if I just held that a little bit longer
Look at this. He's expecting to bounce up with the rays
But Cabo's expecting something you just go swinging out wide
Instant shut down gonna be found
I don't look it can just collect a spike and start to lean towards a which is widely been left empty by paper rex
It's just a buy here. Yeah, this is a good read on the map
They have no contact here, so they're thinking, okay, this is going to be our opportunity.
Paper Rex is heavily committed.
They want Forsaken pushing forward around the mound.
He's the one with the operator in hand.
The one's plopped.
Showstopper out.
The body part of the timing of the Flash Camo dead.
Geassaur, eliminated as well.
That's with the insert.
Over into B.
Going to be good for a woman.
If I swing down to the door, it takes them kicks.
And look at the health.
It is just treks now once again as to try to go for the clutch this time he will be able to find that first elimination
But nothing more
Up to be recovered around to be collected by paper rex now up eight to two
Well, it is getting intense there. I think it's a pretty good map read from team liquid
But they're just outplayed here by divide uses the arc rose perfectly
Oh and it catches him just as he's bouncing and looking the timing on that could not have been better
Through that wall finds GSR
Unreal work there on that lineup with the Odin
Divy has been
Back to his usual self 13 and 4
That one's got Wendler chuckling
The reeds really starting to come through here for paper racks. I
Was about to ask do you have to go for the timeout here?
And indeed you do. You have to get a couple more rounds out of this. And again, as Team
Liquid, you're anticipating that your defender side is going to be your stronger side anyway.
And the Coinbase win condition is just get these last two, man. Just find a way. You
know, this round, I thought, okay, Team Liquid, they found that A space. They're going to
be able to scale forward, but it's Divy this time. That's all according to plan.
Divy is so comfortable.
He's got all of his utile there.
He's got the wall covering the entrance to stairs.
He's got a couple of thorns over there.
He's got that hard crows in an unbelievable position
to shut down the showstopper of Camo.
A long call out of the days of Divy playing the vice
and getting the self flash.
He's absolutely locked in on it.
He's one way from having another silk garden,
one way from a night ball,
one way from a showstopper.
The old economy, I mean, everything right now,
It's just going paper Rex's way.
Liquid for the players on the roster last year there in Toronto.
They got to be feeling like it's happening again.
They're quite 11 to one territory, but 10 to two is not far off.
Is it made?
It's going to be rewarded with too much damage here this time around.
Spattering onto Camo puts him to 80.
There was no Cs to back it up. They were trying to play in the Odin.
We're Paper Rex. They're going to go for the quick rotates and that's still alive. So that means
U-Till still there
Right ball to be sent through for second just to try to hold his ground. We can pick the part meanwhile
Push around the back to buy quick getting on this bike along that's something we kick skits a glimpse gets the shot
It's something however with the operator takes out camo
Indefining GSR something he's gonna be caught off guard
Ching now in that 1v2 the Paranoia not gonna be connecting and the both so very low he finds the first kicks
TP over collect that spike but look at Ching's position
quickly matching him silently rotating over towards C
And again gives it a second thought but they'll have the realization
A little bit of a conundrum here for Jing, have that showstopper, but Kix goes for the
opp.
He's going to plant four mound.
Only 10 HP, the one stray bullet from that phantom.
He could be done.
The showstopper even just gets into the same area code as him.
Should have him dead.
He's down at the angle.
And he denies the clutch.
Last round.
The third round.
Collecting here for Team Liquid.
Trying to make this 4-8.
Yeah, that's a big hold there.
And a great decision from Keeks to grab that operator and put it to good use.
This one all over the place.
Keeks almost falling.
But ready there for Jing.
Just couldn't quite get the job done.
Nice!
So, let's see what the Y's gonna look like here.
Poor Paper Rex, their economy a little bit weird.
Well, that's more than happy to keep that operator in hand.
Try to utilize it as the Hawke can still reveal onto something.
We'll have them walk in the opposite way, you know, while the wall is gonna be triggered
there at B.
They gotta be careful with the spacing here as liquid with that showstopper there.
They're trying to bait a reaction out, ooh, for sakin'.
I think that's a dink as well.
He's having a 63 to buy at 80 something still trying to scare him off, but they are gathered
up there ready to push this angle.
His gatecrash is getting ready to expire.
That's exactly the timing they're looking for.
It's going to be Boston.
He's just going to go backing away.
TP on the flank for a second that is a question of his all help, but he does cancel it.
Meanwhile, NP now going to be lurking for the seal garden forcing them back.
It's over onto the flank and footsteps are going to be heard in B.
How many can you get? There's one.
Which is the second and he finds it. He's on the body. Cleans up Natsy. Up, gone.
The Nero theft out of their hands and something posture forward to be made.
Binds a first. Listen to the second.
And he will get it done. 9-3 the half. Paper Wrecks with a commanding lead.
Well, it's not the same score that it was in Toronto.
Still a very good start for Paper Rex.
That is Liquid.
How the work cut out for them still.
You had a chance to try to run this back.
We'll see if they can get started after the half-time break.
The back end we go.
Second half of Lotus.
Who's going to be walking away with the opening win here?
The champs Shanghai.
Paper Rex.
An incredibly strong start here on Lotus looking like they're back in that form or
form.
Still with a chance, they shift over to that defender's side
to run this back.
No doubt, and if they can get this pistol,
then I really do believe in the snowball.
We saw it on Haven.
Once they can get that win, they
are so good about maintaining that pole position
that they're able to establish for themselves.
It was something that was so crucial for them
in their run in the EMEA.
They made everybody's lives so miserable
off of the back of these pistol wins.
And credit to PaperX, they've done a great job.
In their pistols here in the prep for it so far today
Generally team liquid likes to run the one three ones on their pistols on this map
They're gonna show you some kind of look at it or another
And they've got the stack in a great place
This is going to be where paper Rex decides to commit the bulk of their forces
Double-sack with a third around the corner
What does well to get that kill
Raise on, raise violence.
He manages the profit from it.
It's a one for one exchange at the end.
Some added damage onto something.
I rerout it for now.
Clone scouting up Trex's position there at stairs.
Ooh, that clears the trick.
Apparently, that's Flown TP now!
Has something on that kill!
Spike down A.
GSR with one of his own.
It's something literally at 1 HP.
GSR steps over the first, but something gets a third.
He crashes back to safety.
Debye gets a spike in play, kicks on the approach.
The silent drop down.
Here's that reload going through.
Debye locks up for the headshot.
And how has he gone and done that?
It's always this man, always this gun.
The second pistol of the series for Team Liquid, getting the exact start that they need to try
to run back this half.
It's a red bull clutch from none other than that.
That is exactly the player that you want in that situation every single time.
I'm a bit surprised if I go for the challenge here.
After the initial skirmish with Nats,
I cannot believe something gets away with that.
That is one, oh my God, Divai.
That is just disgusting, but Divai hits that first shot
but doesn't connect the head shot.
And it's that second pistol
when Liquid needed it most.
That breath of life.
We're seeing that from both sides.
A lot of these players are often to go for fights when they could just be playing time.
If you go for something, he is going to be dead. Camel ready to play. He sprays a sprays on the top.
So he can go on and be joining him.
The chain cannot find a damn thing.
Camel down to 10, but with those kills, he slingshots his way forward towards an early showstopper.
Divy looking for a little bit more, taking some low, but hits the headshot of the Kits and okay, suddenly a chance for Divy.
Get further damage in.
My blind is dead.
Our girl's gonna be cleared out.
With this double stacked angle.
Divy maybe could be good for one, but Trex is playing off, ready to counter swing here.
And it's gonna be Chiesaul with the outlaw to take him down and prevent any further deaths.
Fifth round here for Team Liquid.
Yeah, just a good read, a good hold,
knowing that with those smokes there,
that Paper X was going to try to scale through them.
And then just unleash with those Bulldogs,
make it really tricky.
Don't really do anything.
Kind of lead the way with that paranoia,
but Camo's waiting behind the door
to swing in there.
He starts kicking some players down.
GSR having a nice map for himself so far.
14 and 11.
blow up here after a really rough start granted though it was a rough start for
the whole team he is definitely gotten comfortable by watching for this
backs away he does have that full armor there's a check out he gets clipped by
that through the wall
down to 37 it looks like GSR not gonna look to try to push the issue can't
up it over the top getting the spot of the one tracks but they're trying to
not get timing here but loses out the fight straight up they can find that
Kill looks like they're gonna call for the pivot meanwhile kicks gonna be caught in transition
Study the spray
That's just put that spike on the floor paranoia gonna be sent a response
Something still here it stares
And going around trying to see what kind of catch he can get
She's going to be about timing now
Swanks and finds a ball.
Why is there it is something?
There's a paper X.
Prevent a bonus conversion.
They hit double digits.
I really like the way that DeVy has been playing this so far here on the Attacker side.
I know it's early rounds, but he's doing a really good job of being very diligent
watching for the works, watching for that extra player that always, always Team Liquid
Liquid is going to be looking to send forward.
One of the biggest things about Team Liquid
is if you give them any space, they're going to take it.
They are absolutely going to send whoever it is forward
to try to capitalize on that extra breathing room you've
given them one way or another.
So that's going to put a ton of pressure onto the buy here,
especially on this side of the map,
where if he's going to be that one in the one
for grouping and pairing that Paper X has been favoring
here so far, then he has to have his head on his little.
He's got to be that guy playing anti-learn that wrong right there very very nice for him
Nonsight some really good work being done by the rest of the squad something again has been
outrageously good today
So let's pray
That this is not
Anything too bad. Yeah, hopefully just a quick one here
Get back into this
So far up into this point, yeah, so you know, been doing good.
Looking down there and to see, I guess, we get word on anything, of course, we'll push
on forward for you guys and keep you in the now, but now time to take a breather 14
with the charge. Cool down a little bit. Steady the nerves have to expect that after that first half,
the heart's been beating quick. Yeah. Paper Rex playing even quicker.
That was one of the things on Haven though, is that I thought they kind of matched that pace.
They matched that tempo really, really nicely. And that's what kind of threw Paper Rex off guard,
But they were anticipating this slow, methodical EMEA style
that a lot of the teams, including Liquid, kind of run.
I mean, I will say Liquid, when I was watching their vods,
had some really good ideas on when to turn up the tempo,
when to turn up the pace, when to make a change, round
to round, but they were able to really, on Haven,
just kind of aggressively counter the moves,
just kind of quickly make good read.
They're like, OK, they're hitting here.
Let's shift our weight in that direction.
OK, they're not really committed to it.
Let's go the other way.
check all the angles that they could be along the way like they're being really really diligent a
Little bit harder potentially here on Lotus left to see
At least on their attacker side, yes, it was much more difficult for sure
But again, this is the side of the map where you're expecting liquid to do more damage
So far it's been pretty good not able to get that bonus but
Just have to see what the
Follow-up looks like I mean as we ever to go back into it. It is gonna be a little rougher in the edges
I mean mostly a full-bomb, but it's gonna be some half-armors in the mix here for team liquid
See what treks up to go for it's all got thirty six hundred
So I think it's gonna have to be maybe a bulldog angle guardian something like that
For sure
You need to start building up that momentum if you are team liquid
giving a slightly easier chance in this one to run it back compared to you know
what was happening at Toronto. Yes, that is a very big uphill battle. For sure. No
matter how you slice it you don't want to be going down nine three to half. No
matter which side of the map you're kind of favoring for yourselves. That goes
without saying but I think for Liquid you're just trying to get back to
normal I was really impressed with their protocols on this map and their
individual decision-making when to know when to fight when to kind of back off
and hide away from their opponents to make them think that something was clear
when it wasn't I was really really tickled by how well kind of individually
like things they run a lot of like you know single player on a site right it
might be like a like I said in the pistol 131s things like that and those
One players have to be so smart with how they operate and obviously you have Nats
He's pretty much guaranteed to be very good at that but players like kicks players like tracks
I thought did a phenomenal job when they were called upon to make the right choice in those moments
That's what I'm gonna be really trying to focus on here once we get out of this tech pause
Trying to make sure that everything's still right with team liquid integrating this new player in
And so far, I think pretty good.
I mean, you have to be happy with what you've seen.
It's a tough goal to be the duelist on liquid,
like watching the way that you have to take these contact
bikes as Camo and as GSR, to be really tricky.
And a lot of times, you might not
have you till the back you up.
You might have to go for some of these dry swings,
these dry peaks, because it's already been used,
or something like that.
So you're really called upon to do some dirty work.
Yeah, I think that you can even just revisit, you know, where they decided to take the cop on back on ascent.
Go for that, Jet Phoenix. I think you can absolutely just lean in, run your Phoenix.
Yep.
If you want to stick with that one for Camo.
I agree.
So we've seen the return to form the rise back of that your dominance across a multitude of maps.
And I think you just revisit that because clearly a hell of a lot more comfort,
but it also, at the end of the day, could just be one of those first map things.
Yeah, this is a very young player.
It is first a big real opportunity here in tier one,
and it's on the biggest stage against a team that
has absolutely done it all.
Right.
So could just be one of those cases of, OK,
we run it back with a chat and on that next outing.
Who knows?
Maybe GSR puts up incredible performances
like he has done here on Lotus as well.
It's back on Haven.
Yeah, and I mean, the other thing
to consider here for GSR is think about where he's
playing, we're at Shanghai.
This place is sold out.
It's day one. It's packed. It is jam-packed in here.
I mean, playing in front of this kind of crowd, having to travel halfway around the world,
it's tough, man, and the way he's done it has been great.
Alright, well, it looks like this is going to take a little bit longer than we might have anticipated,
so we'll just toss over a quick little video and we'll see you guys on the other side.
Hello, everyone. This is Kix and Kamal from Team Liquid,
and today we're going to be playing the Emuted Comps.
You ready, Kimi? Ready?
okay first question I'll have to scream a bit more what maps have three sides again
what maps have three sides what map one more time one more time what maps have
three sides what map have three sides Lotus and Haven and next question next
what is my full name again what is my full name what's your favorite agent
what is my full name what is your name come on full name full name oh I don't
know this but he has polish name it's impossible to say Camille yeah I have no
idea actually okay I don't know polish names I never remember them okay give
me last number okay last one what is your favorite desert what is my favorite
What is your favorite dessert?
What is my favorite agent?
Sky!
What is your favorite dessert?
My favorite game?
What is your favorite dessert?
Dessert!
Oh, cheesecake!
Okay, bro. Nice. Good job.
Good?
Yes, bro.
I'm amazing.
Unfortunately, he didn't know my name, but it's okay.
It's okay. I will teach him one day. Thank you guys for watching
All right back in we go, thank you for bearing with us but action ready to resume team liquid
trailing by five
Have the body into the mix here
Apparently gonna be set for saying it could be lit up and both moments is gonna die in an instant
Jean and GS are both able to find a kill
Right here alongside that club, the counter swing is there from Nats.
It's a man with a player advantage, they see the Chubbacross.
Down over the top of that trip wire, being revealed out, something happened back away.
And it's the whole door for now.
These are these fast rotates from Team Liquid.
Good kill for GSR.
That's a reaction from him.
Something playing forward.
Vice dead as you till not meaning a damn thing.
And he's got to take the T pain he goes on a walk about.
Turns back over.
Two players that try to clean up on this angle.
He needs to try to find the value,
but he cannot.
That leaves in be all alone in a 1v4.
Valor is there.
He gets scouted.
He gets taken out.
And Team Liquid right back into this.
But from the beginning of this round,
this is Team Liquid addressing some of the concerns
I had after watching some of their vids.
It's taking this A-Rubble control.
And then some of the things that we've been talking about
that they have done well today to counter paper
X and that these fast rotates to counter their moves.
DeVy thinks he's got some safety there
to try to bait off of that clear of the trip of the clone.
But he's not he's not safe at all that's is waiting very patiently around that corner. Well, I know
Oh, no, it's like a it's like a cockroach you see one and there's probably more hiding
That's the worst feeling when you're like moving into a new apartment you're really excited about it
Then you see that cockroach and you're like, oh, no
Well, we've done just that and but it you know, somebody square everything away and hopefully get back into the action here yet again
Don't want to have it to be playing this out one at a time
Hopefully we're just getting it out of the way today. Yeah
Nice and early get it out of the system and lock in for the whole rest of the event. That's right
That's right the copium and the fingers
And then you and I don't start getting blamed for things.
Yeah.
We've done so well to get away from it.
Throughout the years, we've been just dodging bullets.
We can't even blame T1 this time.
I know.
Not yet.
We've gotten there.
I want to blame T1, but they're not in the building today.
I guess we don't think so.
Obviously, big crowd.
They could be hiding anywhere.
That's true.
That's a good point.
You never know where Munchkin's lurking.
Another break here, though.
See if Liquid are going to get a little more momentum.
Being able to get that round win, only investing that near-left.
Ritzy key for them because now you have the conventional drift. You have a showstopper.
They're in a very good position to recover this half.
Yeah, they've got some really nice setups available for that showstopper,
especially with GSR having his ult.
He can kind of guide the missile.
He can a heat seeker.
But DeVy does have the steal garden.
Something does happen to his ult as well.
So, you know, there could be a moment that comes into play where
that showstopper gets sent towards something and he can either TP out
or try to get into the dimensional drift to get away from it.
You know, plays like that absolutely could come into the fold,
into the fold but we'll have to wait and see once we get there how this one's gonna shake
out again massive massive round here team liquid gonna put paper wrecks on the back
foot economically if they win this one probably get up to at least eight make this very very
close again I'm kind of anticipating I think this one's gonna come down to the wire it's
did before why not again given that it was that 93 team liquid fans leaving in
curses leaving the possibility to run this back to get this win to start
things off on an uptick here at Matt at championship I was a masters that was
two years ago that was a while ago it's the big one I was just thinking
Today, I saw Baby Bay in the makeup room.
And I was like, how cool is it?
Last time you were here, you were casting.
Yeah, last time you were here.
You're playing on the stage.
That's amazing.
That's so cool.
So happy for him.
But I want to return to a wonderful city.
It's brought us so many great moments in eSports.
And man, today already off to a great start.
Tremendous turnout from the fans.
to be expected. Yes. The reason you bring a tournament like this to stay like this, the
fandom has just been insane to see the number of people lining up in advance before the doors
are even close to being opened. Turn out it's been incredible and I'm with all the activations
across the city as well. Imagine how busy those are. It's insane. I mean there's so many
that are just like cropping up and they're all over the place. I mean I think every corner
You're going to find something valorant related head down town head to the parks head here.
I mean it's just phenomenal what they put together so much for the fans to see and do.
Well I think they want to see the game so how about we go ahead and get that started up again.
Yay.
Told them we are ready to get back into it.
Hopefully for good and for realsies this time.
Fingers crossed two alts on either side
Too late from that nightfall his envies decent cycle on the horizon here for paper racks
But like you said the cash is not going to be behind them on this round
So if they drop this team liquid very favored to move up to eight. Yes
And again, it's good. I think come down to you know, what does paper wrecks have in response for this showstopper?
It's gonna be another heavy
Heavy commenced towards this rubble fight 14 liquid something immediately
Rolling with his ultimate. He's gonna find a bigger prize. He finds camo
Spotted that enemy raise spotted out that omen
Spits forward now the show stuff are gonna be called in camo
Chucks out what he will be able to get in to come downtown but forsaken is there played in off the dimensional draft
Now they're gonna look to maybe just double back into P but now it's a spilled this space
Jump off there's a spot and that's wins the fight
Tagged to 16 and cannot escape.
Divy able to collect it before he jumps across the gap.
Climbed to the corner to come through.
Steel Guard are gonna be sent in response as the spike gets planted here.
GSR are ready and waiting with the shorty in case they get aggressive and go on this push.
Paper Wrax, that's exactly what they want to do in the team.
He just put some Ascotters on the bench, jumped down, and play and tracks!
Fights of two!
Something now asked to clutch it out, finds it first, can't get the second.
It's another round for Team Liquid.
They march their way right back into this map, right back into this series.
The beautiful work here from Trax and again, it's GSR having his ultimate,
having that extra piece of the puzzle.
I like to set up early from Paper Rex to use that dimensional drift to clear
clear space to set up the crunch on the camel.
Make sure that he wasn't going to be able to get anything else.
But then Paper Rex does kind of what they normally do.
They get aggressive off of the post plant.
And Team Liquid so well prepared.
And now signs of frustration showing here.
What was elation earlier at times confusion for something
without good he was playing.
Now just can't quite get it together.
And this is going to be Alex taking the time out.
Last one.
Both teams have expended all of the time outs.
Given that Liquid are in this position,
I think burned both in that first half.
I think that just goes to show how much
trust Lona had in his team to be able to get back
on the horse here from this defender side.
No doubt, and I totally agree with them.
I mean, that's why you don't mind when you're so confident
that you know how good your defender side is.
You can throw those two timeouts into the first half
to make sure you get those very crucial rounds if possible.
On that attacker side.
Now there's gonna be, I would assume,
an outlaw in play here for GSR.
Or somebody that sometimes does grab it too.
He's indeed GSR and this is what is so scary.
Team Liquid is so good against Ecos with this weapon.
They're so comfortable putting it into play
and it makes your economy so difficult to maintain.
I really like the way that they roll with this.
Camo does get spotted.
He's looking for some kind of scaling here
like we saw on the Eco round from Paper Rex.
That's just forsaken with a sheriff.
Clearing out the boom bot, keeping a little bit of attention
peeled in that direction.
Meanwhile, I think he got the spot there.
He did.
He's not going to try to jump peak that again.
Is he?
Well, it doesn't matter.
Something dead.
First step towards the dying is Thrifty here.
As that Sheriff will faithful in hand, but this time won't be able to get a shot off.
Treks quickly has the kill, can't get that pinch either, they will be able to face forward
eventually, gives them the angle, blasts back over, gun to be recovered.
away from GSR not being revealed by the Hall but they heard that shot. Meanwhile,
Blastback entry attempt and Jing is dead, got him out, collected by Forsaken.
Turn of the flash but still yet a paint shell available but Forsaken able to
flop forward along the wall but now is going to be left all alone.
Eight bullets remaining, does get the headshot of the GSR. Cannot find the
thrifty win. Team Liquid now up to eight, two away from tying this up.
This one kind of feels like it could be the map it could be the deciding round
This next round. I mean this is again tracks is really started to feel it
I also want to give me tracks a ton of credit on the way that he's been able to kind of play some tight angles when
You've got paper X players holding, you know close
We saw with the judge against Forsaken on Haven and you know earlier in this half when he was swinging the corner
around the backside of mound
That was Jin.
Jones stops him.
Right there at his feet.
Pulls up the pulls up.
Finds another magic.
He goes all the way to the pump out of the hands.
Looked like he was playing in slow motion there.
By the way, he's still able to find an immense amount of value
off the rip.
Played better to chase forward something this time.
Not going to fall to the wayside.
Time to Jin.
This Kama will get dispatched as well.
That's out of the waterfall.
He breaks like a timeout call for this round ends up working a treat is Steve off team liquid a little bit more
And a what a way for moving up to match point
It I'm
Searching my brain for a round where I saw a chain just sell a fake like this with a showstopper
And he comes away with a lot more than you would normally expect
They try to use that door to TP to dodge it, but he's just in there too quick
that he plants his feet and it's two for one there while the rest of paper X is
scaling to see unbelievable
the opportunity to look up at this time just ours able to escape
doesn't even take that much damage frankly no with a great shot just to
make this a one-for-one exchange is both raises and the falling it's good
Staggered setup from Team Liquid trying to play a little bit further back.
They've been showing a lot of presence at the early round of rubble.
Forsaken gonna do in the classic thing here to keep some attention drummed up on this side of the map by tapping the door.
Keeping the question marks there, but with this wall here.
A lot of options as Paper Rex on which side of the map you want to go to, but something hasn't seen anything over here.
over here another low trip that's loves these try to use them to get a kill off
of paper X see if they fall for it
they know he's there now clear that one something game crash forward
cracks how to get back to the camera escape 30 seconds left something in with
to the spike to be planted and now these weapons to be saved.
No way to try to play this one out, but this is a tough pill to swallow.
It's allowing for paper X to move their way up to match point.
Liquid are going to have to run up four rounds in a row, push this into OT.
You don't want to start things off zero to one here at Champion Shanghai.
This is an absolutely stellar round from Envy with the Utah.
That nightfall puts Team Liquid in a really awkward position.
Trex tries to go for the fight.
They try to disrespect it.
He prays the price, and then immediately there's a follow-up
with the prowler off the back of that
to tee up something for another.
Sakin'?
Boom.
Not gonna caught.
Trex winning a fight.
Just one gun to be carried over.
It's kicks.
Not to be found.
match point now established by Paper Rex.
As mentioned, both timeouts have been burned in that first half.
There was no way to try to slow this down to turn this around.
You read my mind there.
McHaleo Stads exactly what I was thinking.
I'm like, you don't have any opportunities to stop the believing.
It's going to have to be a triage here by your players on stage.
And look, they can do it.
We know they can.
We've seen it before, especially with that stare.
I am not counting it out.
some militia by though everything that they can scrape together the kitchen sink
And forward GSR out of the main able to get intercept and catch forsaken completely on a wears
Seaside has been left open though quick TP over kicks arriving on the scene
Yet though just a stinger in hand, but
Does have his your parent waterfall
to be committed to backpedal from envy divide making noise rotating out Nats
getting closer has that sheriff Kenny line up the shot yes he dies blinded up
the elimination going all the way here into the hands of Team Liquid they get
the upgrades and they get the lounge this is not done yet not by a site
Team Liquid move up to nine.
This one a little bit awkward.
Paper Rex gets caught in some positions where they're not anticipating that Team Liquid is going to be that aggressive, but.
It's a great round to call a little bit of forward presence here and something takes so long.
He gets way into the back lines of Team Liquid, but he's so worried about where that says that he he's so linked to this party and then it just all crumbles.
It just all crumbles on the site.
A little bit of a laugh there.
Took a while, but I don't think Alex is gonna be as happy with that.
Certainly not.
It's Jen cutting open the up and over.
He's just been dispatched for a second, cannot escape.
Reveals how in a town that's.
Collects that kill and it's gonna be invested spotting out these players
quickly in rotation over towards A.
Still a little ways off and camo very quickly arrives on the scene. He's one away from a showstopper as well
Oh, he found a great timing here already clock the clock now he strikes a life dad the showstopper
Target
The 2v3 this bike recollected the plan to come in
Dimension ribs gonna be set by GSR something
Chase is for what's trying to force him here to have to turn around
Francis B gets the crown, but GSR gets the shorty out!
Something dead, the power in with the scout.
But if he was being stuck, the GSR's got him covered!
A 3k for the young gun!
Gets Team Liquid up to double digits!
Oh, I love this from GSR!
Giving something a little taste of his own medicine.
Widely known as one of the best with the shorty.
Because GSR's turn, turn of the flash there to begin for Zagan just no hope.
Camo, I thought that was going to be lights out.
Look at that sats.
Giving him a taste of his own medicine there.
Now we are at 10 for Liquid.
Two more to go to send this to yet another overtime for these two teams on a global stage.
Altsen been expended.
Catch as well for Paper Rex.
How much to work with here if they drop this round, paranoia out, liquid wing to get aggressive.
Hamo just gonna be chucking out that paint shell, the wall to try to hold it back for now,
GSR, beat seven to five.
Is he able to tear apart the enemy race?
That's a swing forward, but he can't spot the players.
Nobody loves any of them, and they'll die!
What's in the ice?
How do you get that?
To get Paper Rex the win!
The win!
From 10 to 10, he's a nice MEO team!
And Paper Rex starting off the champ's journey, 1-0!
Oh, that is unreal stuff from the divide!
Paper Rex!
Oh boy, they've got the PHD and GG EC.
Let's go boys, that was what a math there, what a finish.
A divide.
I mean, he just continues to amaze,
he continues to impress.
Paper racks, it kind of feels like, you know,
at times you're like, well, maybe they're back to that,
that stage two form we saw and then
as things kind of roll along,
you're able to find that footing, find that comfort.
What an incredible map across the board from Devive and finish in particular.
Giving us yet another ace in this opening series here at Champs.
Paper X kicking Team Liquid to the wayside.
A rough start for them.
A rough way to close out a map that otherwise it looked very wobbly for Paper X coming into this event.
to this event. They're putting in the end but I would have to give a hell of a lot of applause to
GSR in particular for his performance on that Euro. Look great, look like a natural on stage but
for now we'll send things down and we'll hear from Paper Rex and the Verizon Post-Racheter View.
Hello something. Can I borrow you for a few questions?
Thank you congratulations. This is our debut in Shanghai and you put on an absolutely
perfect performance. How do you feel about everything today?
It feels nice, a bit rusty from the start, but at the end we found our place on the stage, so yeah, it's great. It's great to be there.
He said he was really happy because he might have lost a little bit in the beginning, but he also found his own rhythm.
So he said he was very happy today.
We noticed that on this map in Yahai, something got an Ace.
This is also the first Ace of the Shanghai Championship.
I want to ask him how he would see his performance today and how he would evaluate it.
And you've got an Ace on the set. This is the first Ace in this champ.
Are you satisfied with all your performance today? How would you rate yourself?
Yeah, obviously I'm satisfied enough to play like that on the stage, on the first game.
Got the ace, and also my big brother got the ace, so it feels nice to finish the game like that.
But of course, I'm really happy. I feel like I'm still very satisfied with my performance.
I got the ace on the first map.
Also, I'm very happy that the last ace in the game was a very competitive game.
Actually, we know that Kripperwax has been trying a lot of new things in the second game.
They've been trying to change their tactics and tactics, especially the map of Asia.
They've changed a lot of tactics before.
The second game might not be that easy for them.
Now, they've won this game.
They feel how they've been doing in the past.
And you've tried a lot of new things in Stage 2 through tough moments, especially on the stand.
You've changed a lot of cons, and it hasn't been easy.
How do you feel about all these experiments working together so far?
I mean, since we have time in stage 2, we tried to experiment as you said with the new comps.
I mean, just experimenting, you know, sometimes it can be good, sometimes it can be bad,
but at least we know our limit, you know, basically stage 2, we went, it's like,
just limit testing basically as usual. Yeah, nothing much to say else.
Thank you again for joining us. I'll let you back to the audience.
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At Globet, we play that same role.
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I
the first match and of course we went the full distance between Liquid and PaperX.
PaperX finally winning their first Lotus in a little while.
I mean yeah and what a crazy way to do it as well finishing on the Divy Ace to finish on with 24.
The 12 deaths just a beautiful game for him and honestly a fantastic way to kick off chance this
year. Can I just say speaking from inside the venue that it went nuts in here when Divy got
It's like definitely a lot of pay-for-ex-fandom here in the building. It was it was so fun to be a part of and it's been so sick
Cuz it's day one match one every single seat was packed. It's yeah, there's nothing left
There's nothing left. It was it was super cool now, you know the matchup
We're gonna get you next we've got g2 facing ty lu and mel you got to hang out
Let's see you fat baby who just joined this roster recently for the record. I'm jealous. Yeah
Yeah, he made you coffee, you got to try and close with him.
Heidi Lau, like we've had a whole day with him,
she's the king and others.
Well, him joining after an incredible run last year,
up to third place in champs with Wolves.
Yeah, yeah, back when they were playing in Masters 2
in Toronto in that year.
A total breakout team as well that Wolves won
was the third seed coming in, surprised everyone,
making that run.
She thought sort of one over the hearts of fans internationally with with him out on stage
Of course the the bromance with boaster on the other side
He was having so much fun and yet coming into 2026. He went on a completely different Jersey
Jersey journey with wolves right winless in stage one
But then he joins up with Tyloo and turns them around from a six-place team to the best team in China
I think there's one thing that has been consistent since when I met him last year and became a huge fan like so
the game. And the only thing
that's really, really, really
important to so many others
with his run with wolves is
his like determination. It
takes so much character to go
Oh, and five in a stage and
completely turn around and not
even just like via playoffs
contending team and look, you
may make your stats look
better for next year. Raise
your socks up a little bit
so you keep playing day one,
and not only did they win,
they came from the lower
bracket and you will
immediately tell whenever this
and determination. It's infectious and I can only imagine what that feels like to be his teammate.
Yeah, he has some great teammates like slowly for example, but what is it about his IGL-ing or his
personality that really helped? Do you think that was like a huge factor in why Tyloo found so
much success in stage 2? It's really hard to credit it to anything else. I mean they're a great
team. You can see them just kind of looking at how they interact with each other from the
outside. You know, just seeing like their team bonding moments in the in the small moments.
But for me, it's like Sufa, if I'm just someone that is speaking to him for just a moment,
like just for one conversation, and I feel motivated to get on the stage and compete,
like if you're his teammate, they live day in, day out with him.
The effect that an IGL like that can have, we've seen that there's so many different
perspectives on how to play the game. So him just coming into a different team,
maybe he just needed the right pieces and they needed him.
Yeah. And honestly, for my money, he's the best IGL in China and has been.
He plays such a different style to any other Chinese
He plays long float protracted rounds, especially on the attack side where he lets his team go for more like individual plays on the alert with super late round pivots
But he calls really intelligent mid to late rounds
He has this full support of his team behind him to make those choices when you're hitting a site with like 10 seconds left
Like you have to have the full trust of your team to make those calls
Absolutely. In fact let's see what wisdom he has to share with us over with Mika Fabs
I'm here right now with SuFatBB of Tyloo and Vera to help me with some translation.
Now SuFatBB, the last time you were on a global stage, you made quite the impact.
I'm wondering how much more confident are you now that you're stepping back onto that
global stage, and because Champions is happening on your home turf.
And this time you are at the main stage, how much confidence did you get from this?
First of all, thank you all so much for your support, no matter where you are in the world.
Your support and passion helped me adapt to the global stage more quickly.
but now I feel especially confidence playing on home turf and I hope other
people and players can like experience the passion and insane fight here.
Oh it is insane here you have this wonderful crowd that's here as well
hyping every team up so we cannot wait to see you on that stage.
Oh man, if I guess the home ground, Bob, he's going to be even more powerful here in Shanghai.
Now what's really cool is Tai Lu is actually a really well-known org here in China, but
even so, they've actually never been to an international and their very first one is
chance in Shanghai.
That's insane.
Yeah, and no one would have thought they could come here, let alone come as the
number one team in China with their huge turnaround.
Again, a six-place team that brought Zufat into the roster
completely changed their entire style,
both from the IGL calling perspective,
but even the roles within the team as well.
You had a huge transition period
with slowly switching from smokes exclusively in stage one
to playing scout initiators exclusively
in China Evo Series after stage one,
and then becoming a duelist offer player for the team.
but the whole team sort of built around that style
and made this surge in playoffs to take the trophy.
Bro, really ran the gauntlet of roles.
Those three goals could not be any more different
from each other.
And yeah, like you said,
Tyler was a beloved organization here in China,
but now it feels like this team has given them
a real team to get behind.
Because not only are they coming in as like the fourth
seed, they're coming in as the first.
They're really the representative for Sian.
And it's crazy to say that when EDG have been
that team for the region for so long.
and I think they're well deserving of it.
So you watching their games back, I was really impressed.
And I've always thought that when I think of Sienna as a region,
it's never been like their firepower is lacking.
That's like the one thing that is insane.
They have shooters.
It's always been the macro.
And Sioufat, baby, brings that in spades.
Oh, absolutely.
And I think that's, you know, you need all the missing pieces
like you were saying.
And you were mentioning, Ender, the change of roles
from slowly from smokes leading more into that duelist role has been epic.
He's been insane and if you look at it, he is such a statistical anomaly within China.
He is topping basically every relevant category for duelist players.
Actually him and Splash both like top three in basically everything as this double duelist combo.
But I think where he's exceptional is they scoped rifle in hand
and he's not your typical like jet player on defense, offing, getting killed.
This guy is walking up mid with any kind of scoped weapon on attack given no support whatsoever and still taking over rounds
I think the big key here the big question of course coming to the international stages
Will he be punished at the level of team that he's gonna be playing up against that is is the international stage after all
And he is playing these scoped guns, but here's the thing
There are a lot of insane chamber players at this event
So I'm so excited to see how he stacks up against them and if he's gonna end up coming on top
Yeah, I think one more thing that he is so good at is when he is working through mid is the timings that he has
Comboing split hits into site because they play these slower rounds when they're looking for alerts
You have to be perfect on the timings of when the pinch comes in especially on their summit
It is so good their timing attacks through a main and mid to pinch yard players
It is impossible to solo anchor a round yard on that map
He has the perfect timing to sync up with splash playing through his names. That duo is absolutely tapped in now
You can hear the crowd behind us really excited because the players are getting ready on the stage your opponents today are g2
Now g2 they are no stranger so global they were one of America's best for quite a long time
I think they find themselves in really unfamiliar territory. I've it's been talked about so much online
But I think in a way it kind of gives them a buff because they've always been the
overdog in every single event like you guys need to be the ones to win you
have to get to qualify it's not it's a no-brainer they're going to qualify you
need to make finals and now they're coming in and there's a lot of doubt
surrounding their entry on this stage. It feels so different for them this is a
team that's since joining DCT Americas never missed a stage final period this
last stage was the first time it ever happened. It's very different vibes from them and even when
you hear them talking about coming in to play for this tournament, it feels different. They don't
know what the situation is going to be in 2027, so they want to come in here and give it their all.
Can I say something? I love that Jitsu. They're not risking getting sick again. Did you guys
notice that? They did not touch anyone's hand. They said, love you guys, but no one's
getting it. There's no way they're having a reek of London. We're not getting cheap blue,
They've learned their lesson.
Now, Baby Bay did acknowledge that they have one of the oldest rosters here, and Mika Babs
is on standby with them.
Let's see what Ankaas to say.
Standing here with Baby Bay of G2 Man from Caster to Sum, and now you're playing here
at Champion Shanghai.
Now, I want to ask you, like, it's been such an amazing arc for you.
So what do you think is the best form that you have?
Because you mentioned that you think
you're going to give it your all.
Does that mean we haven't seen the best of baby Bay just yet?
Does that mean we haven't seen the best of G2 just yet?
Yeah, I think we get past this first match.
And I think we're going to see the best G2, best baby
Bay possible, because the expectations are gone now.
When there's a lot of pressure on you,
it's kind of hard to always show your best self.
But now we're free.
So I'm hoping that this is the tournament where we just go crazy.
I think everybody's hoping to see it.
You go crazy as well.
So best of luck to you.
Man, baby, last time he was in Shanghai was masters.
He was casting the grand finals.
Now he's going to be here in chance.
And he looks like, you know, I've never seen the team look so relaxed.
You know, they're usually pretty locked in.
Josh, our team are complaining about losing hair.
But it looks like they just want to win it all.
Abyss is one of the maps we've got to look at.
It's going to be very interesting because none of the CN teams have played it yet.
Yeah, I mean, that's one of the factors.
The other factor is that I just want to talk about G2 as a whole.
And I think that this map of Abyss is indicative of the problems G2 have faced
in tough matches this season.
And I think they have been struggling to find big impact out of their duelist players.
And Abyss is interesting in particular because this is a map where Baby Bay is playing the duelist.
You know, they went through this rewiring post, uh, post London post the sick event, right?
Where they tried to see playing this double duelist with baby on the roll and he hasn't felt comfortable in it.
He has looked great on the other hand on the map.
So he's playing buys and chamber.
He's been one of the most consistent players on G2 in those roles.
Dude, all year.
I've been vying for this guy on chamber in the entire year.
Like he's clearly so much more dominant on these roles.
And yeah, like with the Duelist issue that's I mean we saw Jogamo play KO for a minute when he was on the Duelist
I think I want to say crazy crazy things were going on and for me like G2
They talk about the expectations are low
But if this team wants to reach the heights that they had in the past
That's what needs to change for me because their core their support staff is playing I've been playing out of their minds
Consistently Trent another level
But what we need to see is baby they put on the roles where he is best at
And we need to see Jogamo with a returns that big game player that has taken over on the global stage before I do
Want to ask you guys real quick where your predictions are
You know you have G2 like stumbling a bit in America's versus tyloo who's really excited to be here
I'll never step away from the guard core. I'll always be there until it's dying breath
So not today it is tyloo look both these teams have very similar style a lot of slow
The difference for me has been how the doulas have been playing opening kills massively favor tyloo their doulas are playing on another level in this tournament
If G2 cannot stabilize these early rounds, it's tyloo all the way. All right. Well, I can't help but agree with you there
I think there is a little bit of a hometown advantage here for tyloo
But we will just have to wait and see as we send it down to our stage and bring out our squad's G2 versus tyloo
It's champions day one and right now we are seeing the first of the four China
teams play on home ground here and Shanghai and it is very first ever global
and chance appearance here but their opponents are G2 and they're coming in with
this nothing to lose kind of aura. Yeah you hear the way they talk about it
They look loose out there.
They look like they're having fun.
And frankly, that is a welcome image with G2,
a team that is seriously taking these play-mores seriously,
especially on the global stage,
with so much to live up to.
Finally, it feels like they've been cut loose here
and have some fun on the big stage.
It's such a cursed thought to think that G2
is the one kind of off the leash here.
Expectations be gone.
And that Tyloo, in a sense,
I mean, if you can hear the crowd now,
I mean, this man, he's having showman. He had so much fun when he was playing over in North America, in Toronto, now with the home crowd here. Just imagine what he can do.
I mean, if you tapped into VCT America's playoffs in Brazil, the crowd was 100% a sixth player for Loud.
So here in China, in Shanghai,
Tai Lu should be getting that same benefit.
And like, let me be clear here, okay?
There's definitely a level of rivalry
between G2 and China teams.
After the XLG incident,
we have to acknowledge that,
that this is not the matchup you really wanna go into
in terms of the crowd.
Oh, absolutely.
Now, we did see the map, the HyperX map select a bit earlier.
We have Lotus, and we're gonna end on Haven.
Oh, Lotus Sunset and Haven.
I think this is a really interesting map veto.
Tyloo obviously picking into that sunset,
but we do start with Lotus.
Yeah, and honestly for me,
I think that G2 is so happy to be going
as a Chinese team first.
If you didn't know, China did not play on the patch
with Abyss enabled in playoff.
It was too early, right?
Exactly, they were still playing with Breeze.
So Tyloo banning away that Abyss
is a welcome breath of fresh air for G2,
a team that has not looked at home
there with the double duel list.
And exactly what you just said, that's one of their double duelist maps.
And when I was watching that game and my watch party,
I just noticed so many micro errors from G2 that are really uncharacteristic
and they only really shine through when the double duelist is coming.
What I want to see from G2 this game, they're playing their comfort map.
They're playing Lotus first, right?
I want to see Polish.
That is what I feel that G2 has been missing this year.
When I hear their comms, amazing, some of the best I've heard.
But when it comes down to the really minute details,
that matters so much in a meta where you have no utility
and you only have your duelist to make the way for you,
I need to see the polish that we know G2 can do
right here today.
And by all means, they should be able to do that
because Lotus is a map where they're all playing
the agents that they're comfortable on.
Right, this is a map where you get to have
the Leaf Viper come to play double smokes,
you have Baby Bay on the Vizor,
he's like absolutely phenomenal.
And if you look historically too,
When G2 can play these double smokes map with a Sentinel,
they can control the pace of the game.
Things look simpler for them.
But I think that is gonna be a real test
up against Tyloo, who also play
a slower, more controlled style of Valorant.
And there might be something to say about
whichever team can disrupt that, having an edge.
Yeah, actually, I'm wondering a bit about that.
We do know that they are strong on Split and Summit.
We're not gonna be seeing that today.
Starting on the Lotus here,
I think they're really gonna want to start on that good momentum. So, you know, you're you're kind of rooting for
Tyloo today. What are their win conditions against a very structured G2? I mean honestly
Tyloo play a crazy dive bomb comp on attack here, but they're changing things up. Oh, they are.
They've actually played a lot of waylay and graze, which I guess
stylistically hard counters out what a bias tries to do on the other side. I'm surprised to see the switch up for this match
Yeah, I mean obviously I'm not you know gonna be
I'm not gonna lie about my bias with G2 here, but I think Tyloo the move here
I'm not fully buying it. They're trying to match with G2 is already so good at with it
They're so familiar with yeah, and I love the chamber. I think the chamber is going to fly G2 on the defense side
All right. Well, our teams are locked in and ready to go and sorry your casters. Here's uber and white
Thank you very much Victoria Tyloo arrive in Shanghai ready to discover what their future mind holds
The G2 arrive knowing there may not be another tomorrow for this five.
One team begins its international journey.
The other begins its final assault on the global title that has eluded them for years.
Through the eyes of Tyloo Champions has always been a tournament for other teams, other players,
but today it's theirs in their city.
And they're letting them know it.
But standing in the way are a 3G2 who are having fun on the stage, but Splash is in there immediately.
Dog in hotel with...
Trenton at least getting that sheriff back to hand. Scales has already found a lead. That was straight up through the walk in.
Maybe they want to try and push off the b-side, but that's about to become dangerous.
He opts out of the engagement just as reinforcement's arrived.
Now that's a head-to-head, I really want to keep track of.
Scales vs Leaf.
Scales has been incredible on this Viper.
Leaf will be all-time best Viper's.
Pailu here, bouncing off at a extremity.
Setting up for this C here.
Shield wall is going to have to be contended with.
Now, side of that, there's some arresting U-Till for Valen,
but he's well and truly across the map.
A flash, maybe to play off of here for Trent.
But they better take contact, but that's the Sheer wall doing its job.
Scales on the wrong side of it, and baby back takes the challenge she'll have towards Waterfall.
This gets now a little bit more complex for the Chinese squad.
This baby base looking to take the initiative.
She is a bit of a pattern on the footsteps coming his way.
And he will bide his time in the smoke.
He is a step out of there it is!
Slowly down with him, Valor backs him up from the periphery.
G2, get on the board early.
Off the jump, three versus five.
The way that Baby Bay and Trent were maneuvering that site in tandem was really lovely to watch.
Wall goes up, Trent gets that first isolated fight,
Baby Bay gets the second tungsten to smoke when they try to jump in.
The rest of the team are ready to deny the swings from Tyloo.
Oh, he's looked great more than Ajib Adjib, but he bided his time inside the dark corner.
Man, I don't feel like you see Trent off his feet like that too often.
Oh, we don't.
That is straight away.
This is a bit of a con change here for Tyloo, moving to something a bit more standard instead
of the Ray's Wailay double duelist. Look, Scales low-key. From contact here, the bandit
sings out. Valor might be overwhelmed here. Valor's going to come on in. This is getting
messy stuff. Trent's trying to fall back behind this flash, but this is the cost
of Valon G2. Lose a lot of steam early. That's a gun handed over.
That counter utility not enough to keep G2's IGL alive, leave on the flank 1v1 potential,
but you're going to buy this time, not get too aggressive.
It's up for the omen player, realizes there's a good chance there's been a push off of the
B side.
And now, slowly it's going to get exploratory.
Getting some advice, you tell out, get to discover that A is at the players,
Again, back with all six, B-side, push-up from there's Baby Bay.
And then three, Mayhem salvaged the round,
but exposes himself to the last player.
It's slowly with a headhunter.
And it all to do.
Tremble had the drop out of me and Wyatt.
Yep, gets that audio cue.
Flash goes up.
It's nice, but the race with the spectre is awkward.
Still makes it happen slowly.
Way too blinded up by that util piece.
Three Tyloo players dying in their own sport in that round.
a lot of ping ponging back and forth.
That second attempt to push off the B side
that yields results.
Back to back rounds with the man advantage
is found for Tyloo, but G2 are able to dig deep
and it's Baby Bay who is coming up
with the crucial multi-kills to go on this two zero lead.
Stumbling around outlawing the hands of slowly.
We're going to push up off this A site earlier. TP forward here. Is it G2 trying to open his bonus?
Slowly doesn't want to fire at it. He's out of there.
He'll find a way to find that pick on the C site, leaving the site completely open and crucially rendering that sheer wall to useless.
Good reaction there for Slowly, but it comes at the cost of his life from the end.
G2 again, play a disadvantage in the mid-route.
Well this time, he's got a disadvantage, health disadvantage.
Plenty of other disadvantages, so surely Tyloo lock this one up after they get the catch on maybe they jiggle peaking and make quick work of leaf.
Crucial rounds that get on the board.
Two valid targets for the Outlaw here in terms of one-shots.
It appears though, the way G2 is set up is that exits are the name of the game.
He's been trying to spot him down here by scales.
Looks like he has designs on keeping his weapon for later round.
Oh no, take the fight.
And he ends up going after the armored player in SuFat.
I am excited to see more of this slowly chamber.
As of right now, he's just been playing it on sunset.
But his stats there are outrageous.
averaging 185 damage per round. It is obscene but we're yet to see it on other
maps. We're yet to see it on Lotus. Can he continue that level of elite tier
performance across multiple maps in the pool? One thing to note, slight
mutual spacing issue with that pushing the halls. Leaf gets bowled over anyway.
The swing came before the Paranoid connected. Tyler looking to find their
C legs here as a team who never dreamed that have a shot at a tournament like this one
Slow out towards this a side G2 not hurried into the fight like the prior round
They can slow the pace of the game down force Tyler to have to deal with the ice utility
G2 really looking to push up on a extremity early in these rounds this time again, it's that C mound look
But it's not just BabyBag over at C.
At least it wasn't.
Slowly he's gonna get what he came for.
He gets that sheer wall out early in the round.
I really want to give him some proper time to work the map.
Hell, this A-space can go back to it.
Working to that site like duo of Trent and Valentahold
at the original core of this scene.
long-standing duo that has kept them at the top of the scene in America's globally.
But it might not be their sight as the pivot towards B seems to be on through Blue Room.
Paranoia the disconnect that came from tree side. Despite throwing things in a question for
Tyloo they are uncommitted, unsure. Leaf trying to hold the angle. Is every level
to get a force him off the line? Jor, similarly, will have to concede that ground and G2
are on deck for a retake. Tyloo have no issue taking their time on these attack sides,
working the map with every second that remains on the clock.
They're going to get proactive off this nightfall, yeah, not towards heaven though, it's towards waterfall.
Patient there for Leaf, realises he might be double pushed on that line, falls off of it.
Refresh the smoke up towards upper bit, now it's about time for rubber to hit the road, it's draw, falling first.
Trent playing it safe.
Maybe they're looking for a way in, time now becoming a little bit more of the essence,
and G2 are realising they've not got enough of it.
And they were just never able to find inroads into that site.
Where was the path to actually breach into being it?
Just really didn't exist.
A nightfall brought a lot of delay.
And then after that, couldn't find anywhere to actually work
back in together, forced into the stage.
Feels like it's got to be said at this stage,
the early action in these rounds
has belonged entirely to Tyloop.
G2 have a salvage.
Slow starts round one, round two.
Well, we've now seen Baby Bay get picked off
on the C side of the map.
Two consecutive rounds without an answering frag,
without a trade.
Despite being the vice,
Baby Bay is genuinely the star player for G2 on Lotus.
He has put up some monster performances here in Americas.
The first Lotus game of this last stage,
he dropped a 30 bomb.
He is incredible on this agent.
can be afforded to lose him early in the rounds, both in that he's a vice and that he is someone they need to rely on to get late round kills.
Something's brewing here. A pretty committed push off the b-side for the defenders, but that trademark will give the game away to the white multi-players facing this angle down.
You're fat about to peel around it to one for one, splashes them and a double down!
Get out of there, look at the tally!
G2, hamstrung with that push-off being out of the map all of a sudden.
It's wide open.
That is the one important player for Tyloo, but the crowd are treating him like one of their own.
Beautiful 3k, this splash and slowly duo.
You can't hero build enough, you can't hype them up enough.
They have brought Tyloo to the top of the scene in China.
G2 returned to the scene of the crime,
but there is nothing to be found, not even a chalk outline.
But Tyloo again, working the map, diligently, slowly.
But now with how much ground slowly is gained
on this sea side, they're committed to landing here.
They've got holes control as well.
G2 hardly seems like a way into the round.
It feels like the way that G2 played this round is kind of indicative of the carefree style
to some extent that they're approaching this tournament with.
Having Valon push that deep out of sight, multiple other players, like in the mid-round,
three pushing out of B, it feels uncharacteristic for a standard G2 Lotus defense, but it
does fall in line with the mentality that they have right now.
Baby Bay will be alone on this big side of the map,
hoping to get something for his money.
Splash found, Paranoia dodged the RV, lying in wait.
Baby Bay does not fancy it.
However, another gun trained on his position will be found.
Slowly caps off the round, putting Tyler with a lead in Sioux Fats.
Just to make sure the crowds are where the tides it's earning
It's our personality that energy that was a catalyst
For making wolves believe they could go on a deep run but making everybody watching at home that that was a
Possibility to use just that kind of leader
Yeah, just in the relevant, in Toronto, and it feels like he's convinced Ty Lube of the glass so it fits them as well.
Yeah, he's transformed them in-game, but also brings out leadership outside of the server as well.
G2 forced into a fairly early time out here, had some serious momentum round one, round two, down players, baby bay winning unwinnable situations,
situations but since then, since the gun rounds,
Tyloo have been playing with some finesse
on these attack-side rounds, slowing the game down
where they've needed to picking the right sights.
You know, I call it most win condition.
You can see the whole story here.
You do see G2 win the first couple of rounds
that those came at play disadvantages.
Those came in shorthanded scenarios.
It's tough to replicate success like that.
And enough of an aggregate to sort of win out a map.
We need to see G2 making his right calls early.
And we find them here in Shanghai in such a weird position.
Their Lotus especially was a bastion for them,
such a strong map, but in recent memory, loud.
Hand them a 13-1.
The same team that ultimately kicks them out off stage two
out there in Sao Paulo.
We don't know what to expect from G2.
There's been all-year reinventing themselves.
This in theory is a map where they don't have to play
double duels so they can play to their strengths.
Haven't found them yet.
Yeah, this is a map that they have to play in this series.
It is the right pick.
You do not want to mess around playing
against Tyloo double-dualist maps at all.
You want none of that, especially given you're
a non-double-dualist team.
So they get Lotus, they get Sunset.
They have what they need to win the series.
But even still, they are playing
against Tyloo reaching heights that they did not
know they were even capable of just months ago.
6th place in kickoff. No Masters for Tyloo in Santiago. 56 in stage 1. No London for them.
And then they just come out of win stage 2 outright. Talk about trajectory.
No opportunity for Leaf to leverage this dirty bucky buy.
It seems like it might be the case, scales, walking into the lines.
Den! Leaf is waiting! That's a big opening!
Gonna limit the options here for the attackers as G2R looking for that early action so much as lying in wait and reacting.
But Fallon is picked off for free!
What is the timing though with Baby Bay's Steel Guard and can he connect onto several players?
He might just get ran down, he put it away, he's not going for it.
Spam down through the smoke to agree he is that Steel Guard.
The splash can respond by reaching for the overdrive instantly.
Hoping to spam, Babyface good in the edge of that smoke.
Leaf can't get in the holes.
A shocking reception as Babyface strikes that one of the sides.
It's Leaf.
Look at the work in.
And there's some help here. Trent is backing up Baby, Baby.
They are both very low.
Horrific HP, Babyface.
What the fuck is that? How does he do it?
How?
And that's onto Zufat.
Trent and Babyface looking to double this up.
Time of the essence.
Trent Bowe gets himself away.
And Peggy Bay is going to do it his own way.
Two charismatic leaders at work.
It's Sylvac because of the better health, the better weapon.
And he gets the drop from the veteran.
And I think that message was clearly delivered.
Really are two players with so many parallels in personality.
but that's because they've picked up the operator, thrown it in the hands of Jaws.
You have to get much going right now, but...
Welcome to Shanghai, Jaws.
Much needed opener.
First kill on the board and a first blood that gives G2 a significant advantage.
The other rounds have looked a bit different here for G2 now.
Fortunes reversed and finding his first kills.
There's a lot of runway and still a plane to land here in round number seven.
There it is.
Catched in stall.
Valorant knows he's going to get pressured down from Godland's
line of splash.
Laughing in the face of disaster.
It'll take a third fight.
Cannell will quench him with the ERV on that B-side with a spike.
It's virtually a different postcode.
How can he recover at not even close to an alt?
So that's not going to be an option, 30 seconds to play with.
Wants to see if maybe he can catch someone.
Walking a bit too far forward, but G2 disciplines,
not giving an inch.
No way back into this round.
So that operator coming into the fold.
G2 that really crucial first kill.
And from there, we're seeing another moment.
Valin is just happy to post up on some kind of forward-off angle taking fights
playing more aggro and we have not seen a lot from him in that regard in the last
couple stages but it's nice to see him playing that kind of confidence right
now. Joel fights in his own way into the game with this open up, called him a
bright lights merchant in the past. Joel already won a champs by the time
slowly and start a fight. That is the gulf in experience here just like five six
months after that slowly plays his first Valorant official after Jarl wins
champs is ridiculous and to see him at the level that he's at in just a
couple years of professional play and Valorant is ridiculous
Once again, G2 determined not to give anything for free in his first 40 seconds of the round.
This is reminiscent of one of our earlier rounds though with the TP forward towards
Rubble by Valon, he's looking to get set up.
This time, Tiley salivating the thought of pressuring this B site.
wall is over there. And it's the willingness to play a slower style that will enable them
to effectively deal with some of that high suitability again. Step forward as it's punishing
as it gets. Fallen gets that opener. Seal fatt is out of the game now. Pressure on the
big side of the map. It's going to be a showstopper. Splash isn't going past. The
cabbages take a bite out of him though. Splash has been down. Slowly seems out of the
Up here and he'll be flexed for his life over to what's connected, but it's Leith walking it down on the C side
Snakebite in the way. He'll be down to three
And it'll be Leith who finishes him off
Every maneuver from Tyloo being responded to just as quickly by G2
That's overstep from Sufa
What's the rest of Tyloo in a horrible position?
They feel like they need to accelerate something into the round, but G2 are well prepared already.
Maneuvering towards that BC side.
Have them cut off at the pass and get into either side.
They're just playing the chokes.
Valor's able to find the pick over towards Rubble's side.
You can't get in the seed, Leif is waiting for you over there.
Splash gets caught out by the Seekers.
Tyloo now going to avail themselves of an opportunity.
Check in with the coach. Time for our Coinbase win condition.
The tides have begun to turn.
It is a rare thing, by the way.
We are in the first day of groups
and we are looking at a hashed out arena here, the Jigan Sports Center.
No holds barred. We are in here in Shanghai,
holding nothing back as far as the crowd's concerned.
And the haven't always needed Silphat to encourage them to get loud.
They are not waiting for permission to do so.
Getting back into the game, the Tyloo economy, still strong despite the losses.
Still able to get an operator into the hands of slowly.
And continue to maybe show the willingness to keep the game quite slow, which has been
working out for them.
The majority of the time has been working out in terms of dealing with some of the
vice utility.
Timeout from G2 though, did see a pace change. Let's see if the same could be said from Tyloo.
Here's the TP4 to get towards Rubble. This time it's ready into. Yavi is waiting for Valon to turn up.
A bit high pass with their front G2.
But now with Valon removed, Tyloo encouraged to take some further space towards A.
Begin applying pressure to G2 in terms of the map control.
But ultimately, they're not pressured into doing anything too quick. They don't have to play with any kind of haste in the situation.
All the while, Jor has been looking for an angle of some sort of axis. A way to get an early read on this, but Talu slowly been working their way into tree.
Now one kill has come from the operator.
G2 need Jogamo to get in that evil geniuses champions, champions form, right?
They have needed that from him in the second stage of America's and desperately now for the last tournament of the year.
One big one against slowly neither can connect.
Crucially Jordan Panachev had a fall off the line. Trento has to get his hands dirty quickly from up a side.
Spike, obviously down, got to get moving and Splash waiting.
Trying to be everywhere in one since having a catch leaf on out.
That means that G2 will call on the outside looking in
and there's just no path forward in the round.
They're up to keep the weaponry.
Splash's play really has been fantastic on this Neon.
Honestly, it's got me wondering if Tailu aren't going to opt into just playing more Neon
across the board as we get to other maps in the pool.
They've been doing it on Sunset, but that is their primary Neon map.
map and when you have splash displaying this level of proficiency on it and you can get slowly over
onto the chamber if you want to just play the solo neon look that is so potent. There's two players
that are going to be on those roles enabled to absolutely frag out.
Slowly someone's going to be tracking over the entirety of this map
Especially as it moves to defense side for Tyloo.
With Tyloo being there, that was a two gun save now for G2.
There's that first hit camera on a four block because Valon has been de-engineered for G2
in terms of getting back into this map early on.
It's okay, it's okay.
Just a little misfire on that teleport.
Or a tendency that was ready. Either way,
Only get off the brake on the seaside of the map of the defenders
Tyloos also comfortable towards the safe side just taking the space slowly
Not a lot to glean there for ERV this trend doubles back and make sure there's no open threat from this spawn
The insert of slowly has been left on this A-side and Tyloo now will bounce across to
the other extremity.
They're going to have to reckon with this Viper's pit in that C main choke.
It's on slowly, and he opened up an advantage here.
The trailblazers have proper forces him off the line, and he has to entirely pack up
shop on the A-side.
That's so valuable from G2.
Look at the rotate that that's activated on the map now.
on the move towards B and C Valon, a nice first kill.
Getting rid of Splash's wall, that's going to be the
heap it is for Tyloo, blunted significantly.
They're running out of time, they're going to try and work
onto this B side of the map, the Trent found slowly.
That's that lurk player, neutralized.
Options getting slimmer and slimmer here.
G2 could occupy the pit over on the C side,
but Scales has made his way through.
Like ships in the night, he's passed the lead,
but Silphat won't be nearly as lucky.
And that's the spike, loose in the pit, Scales.
But grudgingly has to double back and salvage.
That's a 10 second recovery mission to get a baby
by watching the exit.
This round ends up being so defined by Trent,
that trailblazer that floor slowly all the way back.
It's the full Reclear on Rubble.
Just allows G2 to, with confidence, rotate towards B and C.
Slowly is there just to take some space.
And hey, maybe tightly go back from late in the round.
Well, that's no longer an option.
And then you also see Trent on the minimap, maybe in the replay, but he just knew slowly
yet like there was going to re-clear walk up.
He is just posted on the angle, has the read on him, and gets a free kill.
Trent really imposes his will on that round, and it's just been a couple small little things.
He has been the informed player for G2 recently, maybe over the entire year.
1.16 rating, 70% KST rating, 76 rather, so extremely involved in many of these rounds.
He's given us stabilizing factor for any of those rounds that might get miss called by a villain
Trent seems to be there to sort of smooth it over. Yeah, despite any of G2's woes this year
There's been a career-high year for him. No doubt
Five rounds on defense nothing to scoff at when it comes to low
It's too fast for Jordan. This is too fast. He's gonna get out. Yeah, good movement with the satchel
It stays alive for now
It's just a faint in the end from Tyler not fully committing to the B side but back over towards tree
There's Reaklea, hopping over towards A.
Scales might be about to walk into this somehow, he has a sense for it.
And they're all waiting for him.
Now, you're on a timer, Tyloo have got to activate all the moves, it's A side of the back,
but Baby Bay's lying in wait, and Scones is here at the back of A.
Still, Fat also falls once again, spiked loose, an ERV in an unenviable position.
That's so well done for G2, taking all the space on C, funneling Tyloo over towards this A side.
Yeah, not only for this world, they are pushed right into the waiting arms of Baby Bay with that Vice set up on the A side.
Pretty stark contrast to the G2 at the start of this half.
Pushing off site early, overcooking a little bit.
Just like by their time, Valon always seems to be waiting for something to walk into his site line.
Baby Bay similarly in this situation, the trap set as well, over to what's that B side?
Yeah, the G2 round losses, several of them have come from being a little bit too aggressive,
but I kind of rather watch G2 lose from being too aggressive than not being aggressive enough.
Because so many other rounds have been won by their willingness to be very proactive.
I would say this is a pretty proactive mound presence for G2,
scales has a feel for it. He does get revealed though. That sound cue was a lot to work with now, but G2...
I think that's a bit more than I can chew. That's the omen out of the game. Splash though will be brought to heal.
Jor, he's going to go for it! That one blew up in their faces.
Feels like he just needs to take a fight, find one, maybe duck back behind Mound, but...
I don't think he really expects three crosshairs just posted up right out of maybe even fortunate to get one there.
This is where it gets excruciating though.
Tyloo still have ample time to work this map.
Tyloo are not out of the woods despite being up 3-2, despite getting their spike down.
There's an Odin, there's an ultimate as well from Baby Day Night, Spam delaying the plan.
Oh, that two-champion there at all, Leaf Spam, and she killed it, wallbang.
12 rounds for cringe to find its way into the game. Here we are.
Slowly, gonna have a crack at it himself.
All right, it's time for the still guard. If this gets me comic,
get it slowly, it'll get the head of any bouncy open player.
It's on Basie Bay. 31 years old, gonna carry the world.
Not a drop of blood in a meter.
Tyler, we're even it up in the heart.
My heart is super. I turn on him.
And dodge the flash right back on the angle.
He's had some excellent individual moments so far on this stage.
As it needed to be that guy for Tyloo because the firepower is so outrageous across the
board but he's always capable of being a hero himself.
But walking away from this half, you gotta feel like it's a bit of a win for G2.
They were down 4-2, they're on the less favorite side of Lotus and they're able
to bring it back to 6-6.
I mean, all things considered, that's not bad from them.
An all-top two, Shabby whatsoever.
It's gonna be a spirited second half here on LoL.
It's both teams are bringing their best.
We're gonna head down to Valorah in the crowd
for an interview with a special guest.
I'm standing by with a special guest,
the Chinese MMA fighter, Song Yadong.
Nice to see you here.
First of all, because today is actually
the first time you've come to the champion's
competition, as a UFC athlete.
And this is your first time at Valorant Champions. As a UFC fighter, what's your first impression of the atmosphere here?
It's a very special place. I've never been before. The fans are crazy. The vibe is amazing. I'm so excited.
This is a very special place. I've never been to a place like this before.
The venue is very good. The fans are very enthusiastic.
I'm excited to be here.
Before a month, he just defeated UMA2.
After winning the game, he got closer to the championship.
I want to ask him what he has to say to the players who are still fighting on the stage.
And less than a month ago, you were competing here in Shanghai yourself and knocking out Umer and moving closer to a title shop.
What message do you have for the players here in this champs?
Just enjoy the game, focus on your plan, never give up.
CN team, let's go!
Let's go!
Focus on the game, believe in yourself.
I believe you can do it.
CN team, you must do your best!
Come on!
They're still chasing that global title for a while.
It's what they're hunting here in Shanghai and in Pailu.
The newly crowned Chinese champions are standing in their way.
They have just been giving their all day in day out
for years to have an opportunity to qualify
for a tournament like champions.
Now on this defensive side,
have to take down G2 on their best map.
G2 getting busy with it early. Straight on towards this B side, a B line.
All the objective.
G2 can really go for some fast tags next against this Tyloo.
Yeah, big batter here. Dangerous.
Slowly trying to make a flank, but down's waiting for him.
This is G2 looking like they've bred very well into Tyloo's little nickel and dime movements.
There is, smoke drops, and down comes the curtain on the round for splash.
Splash!
He's going to fight for his life.
There's a dirty headshot.
Jay DuVayne, Jool.
A hard lurking though.
The waters are chummed.
And there's some sharp teeth waiting.
Given that Tyloo's Sentinel is just this lone chamber,
it's not a vice, not a lot of stopping power.
So G2 can opt to go for some fast executes.
They don't have to deal with a lot of that stall-out utility.
It's not like when Tyloo had to hit Intv and they're dealing with a Shearwall
100% of the time.
Well, raise the ball.
Just not a factor yet.
Just a quick trip to break, right?
So G2 get into the site fast.
They know that the win condition in the post-plant
is to take more space.
They go forward into waterfall.
And off the back of that, they win.
That's a really crucial pistol.
Take the lead, 7-6.
This is against the Tyloo team, who, by the way,
in stage two in China, we're leading the lead in pistol
round win rate.
And no joke on those rounds.
Getting on the fast break though into the B side of the map, abusing the lack of shear wall.
Splash just has to face the music and it's leaving. Ready and waiting.
G2 put themselves in this round in a position to abuse the economic advantage.
All of it slowly, eventually bowing out of the round.
Conversion off the pistol here for G2.
Off to a good start in the second half.
And if they can, I just want to funnel those orbs over towards the jaw.
Get him to heat up on this attack side.
We've already touched on it a bit earlier, but he wasn't having a great stage two.
Actually, not compared to even the beginning of this year at Santiago, he's the fifth
highest rated player.
He was fantastic at that event.
And then you go down to stage 2. There is a serious drop-off by all number of metrics. They need him
To tap back into that bright lights merchant moniker. Yeah, we know he's gone in him
He just hasn't been able to display it as of late
It's my slide on the trail also that despite of it all trouble
But it's getting a little bit disconcerted a little bit discombobulator down a step and then trying to make sure that he puts him out of his misery
So far he left to try and make him work himself back down with the RV
Paranoid comes in a little bit too late to stop
The Tyloo caller.
It's a great A-fight from Tyloo,
and in the meantime, slowly just
prodding out of that B-site
gets the catch onto a rotating
baby bait to further cement
the advantage.
Good time for G2 to slow the round
down if they've got any designs on
winning three one-shot
targets for that outlaw.
Romain on the Tyloo camp.
Valen was going to forge
his destiny elsewhere
Leaning into C.
This could be so tough for him.
Wow. Alright, well suddenly G2 back in this round.
He can leave just in this game after that one.
Fully alert. Stand up in C.
Neuron's activated.
Now, Tyloo, get me aware.
It sees where the party is. Lee's trying to get ahead of this.
Over towards the ball dog now.
Interesting posting
Just wants to play this off angle
What could I do in here? It's gonna be cleared out. They're nice heads up by Valin gets rid of that piece of utile
But he gets reveal Valin in this smoke though. Here's a breach he goes!
Scales on the RV down and now it falls to the captain and caller
Seal fat has to unravel
What's quickly become a diabolical situation and a bonus conversion for G2
which is not around they could afford to lose.
Tyler get a bit divided on that play.
Sufa had the understanding that someone was probably playing close back calls.
When the haunt gets broken by someone on site, indicates someone is close
and that is to support their position.
Which other spots?
Leaf is revealed.
But in this moment, the two of them going through the cloud.
You know, he just can't get his sights on Valon for that trade.
It's brutal.
Valendating for someone whose future has been brought into question on this G2 outfit recently.
Someone who in the past would probably never have thought to be in such a spot.
Always the safest pair of hands.
side of the pacific
is clear
yes yes
and be through the door keep holding Bj you're gonna move up on me every
every fair week wait just probably move fake be clear fake be clear there's not a
trap of say I don't want to go back I'm back I'm back
ready for the dogs okay push them off let's go through the wall yes yes
Get ready. Go set it.
Malik's here again.
Up.
Let me get a split, boys.
Can you see me?
Can we commit?
Watch it out.
Watch it out.
Hold it. Hold time, Nate. I need you to.
Keep walking.
One at the front.
They're gonna flood.
Guns out, boys.
One HP.
Two Heaven, two Heaven, left side Heaven.
You can't hurt from the ceiling, see that thing?
Hold it, hold it.
Oh my god!
What did you do?
What did you do, bro?
I just fucking fucked.
The babybay said the team are feeling free,
but they are still communicating with some intensity.
You can tell that they still want it as badly as they ever have.
That call in from Dallin uncanny included the timing of the flood that perfectly
the guns out boys hold on that bounce over to the B side as well and you see the
level of care that goes into calling even an anti-eco around when you're a
head-by-three this is the g2 that walk into this arena with a sense of
reverence for the sport for the stakes they are not messing around and
Yeah, got to echo Josh there.
Masterful calling for Valor.
That just feels so good, so invigorating
to be able to begin this campaign on loads of all maps
as well, to be able to build the confidence right away
on your home turf.
Also, to validate the mentality you're going into this
with when straight away you are able to get
now a pretty strong lead against Tyloo,
get close to closing out this map.
Feels like that's just proof to them
if they take it here that they are in the right space
to make a champions run.
See if Tyloo can begin to claw back,
put their first defensive round on the board
and my eyes run slowly to see if this operator
going to be a catalyst of that. See if that can lead them to a seventh round here.
This is G2 that are surging ahead. Even without their duelist. So struggling to get into the game.
Joel hasn't been out of step as authority on this match. He's looking for something early here.
The lead snatches the kill right out from under him. That's much like that pistol.
What is there to stop them on B? They can just execute on to this site with ease.
But this time the post-pile maneuver very different. Jaws left inserted,
Valley left in blue room to fend for themselves while the rest play off site.
These fast breaks on the B invalidate the op, slowly doesn't have a chance to get into the game.
G2 are just going to barrel into the middle of the map.
Trying to find some kind of line through blue room, that is a nightmare.
Shots up a pop, that's Jorn.
That's a hope there's some kind of over push.
But as G2 were talking about, they're not going to overcook in this kind of situation.
This might be a bona fide for gun save for Tyloo.
There was no way into this site.
And it's just hit them.
Nothing to be done here.
Exits to play for.
Slowly at least they have a Snatch Fallen out of the mix.
And that may well be all she wrote.
G2 building up a pretty dominant economic scenario.
You just saw Tyloo's positions around the map.
You have your operator trying to get through the breakable door, there's no angle, there's nobody to get back in.
Right, and you have the backwards to get a frag.
And your one man down is the neon, so no real...
Paths entering back inside, no fast lane, you know, there's just nothing back in.
By rounds to the good of G2.
G2 just understand how to simplify the game right now, they know what the win condition is, and they are playing right into it, no frills.
Just as straightforward as it gets.
Early door toggle for slowly. He wants to get ahead of this.
Up on Rubble aggressive, but it's a firing squad waiting for him. That's going to be off-dropped away.
ERV realizing now his day's mighty numbered.
Some damage went on to Trent amidst that exchange, but that isn't off.
Ferry now over to the hands, the capable hands of Leaf.
It felt like G2 couldn't have been any more predictive of what was about to happen with
multiple players just stood right there, staring at that angle that slowly takes.
And now time is on their side as well.
How do Tyloo get back into this?
now they're trying to hedge their bets with this sea site stack wire they're
a little premature they just desperately want to keep g2 off of this
match point pure agony to save in this situation let g2 get to 12 after you
just had to run a four-man save in the last round it's astonishing how
quickly G2 can put Tyler in a position where there's no way into the round that's
what the chamber can sort of vote enough a vulnerability that can be exploited
by the right kind of team G2 are not missing words here splash is just
immediately picked off over towards the A side Tyler would have had to cover
so much ground just to get close to the site
It seems he's downed.
Much like that last round. There's just no path back in.
Alba Hunters on. G2 looking for a little bit of a perk up at the end of this round, but they're encroaching on matchpoint and they've got money to burn.
Finally, they're not so much.
Easy, Tyler, with so many weapons, so many potent aspects, two explosive factors in slowly
and splash that have been silenced, controlled here by G2 who are suffocating the Chinese
number one out of this map.
Tyler needed to save every weapon they could to put together a competent buy here, and
What might be their last round in this first map?
G2's pick of Lotus.
And again, you're calling upon slowly.
You are looking at him, pumping his all right now.
And he has got to keep Tyloo in this game.
He has got to find a pick somewhere.
He has got to garner an advantage for his side,
an advantage that they have just been unable to find.
All these consecutive defense rounds.
Yabi's been out of carve out a lot of control on this A side.
He's never truly safe crossing a sight line where Leaf is waiting.
He's got all day.
That is pretty huge for me, Yabi. Just thanks to Span through the wall.
Unclear G2. Got to get busy on the C side of the map.
Now that might encourage G2 to go into this stack.
Now that their A option is removed, they don't have anyone to double back to.
So right into the trio. Flash.
Messi starts short, they're going to find a key frag.
about the open ping down by the Torch, still wants to fight for it.
Silphat though dominant on the side.
Completely unfazed here by the pace change of G2.
Valon's already tried to get up, but get a foothold here,
but spammed down through the wall.
Another nice clean up by the IGL,
leaving G2 down to two members,
and then even the odds in the blink of an eye!
All of a sudden, Talu had to work it from the extremities.
And G2 are sitting in a post-platform,
the map is slowly sticking out of the Torch of Force,
in babybay the revelation for g2 this year with the map to win
there's no way there's just no way he's got the drop on him
he'll be downed 31 years on this planet
unfazed is babybay he delivers the death blow in map one
he said that he came into this tournament just thinking about
How far his journey has been this year from casu to substitute to player to making it to champions
he has to try to enjoy every single moment that he has left with g2 and he's playing so well right now
more for this year is to come off call sun set around a corner 6-0 map for tylen let's see if they can bring it back
right here at champions shanhai
The city of law becomes the city of thieves.
They plunder, they pilfer, and they persevere in Paris!
You win this and murder and these ones will jump out of their face!
I
I'm here right now with SuFatBB and Vera to help with some translation now.
SuFatBB, I hear you miss Zelsis and of course you miss Bozer, do you get any like well wishes or messages from them but also I think you have somebody else, a new best friend in your life?
I heard that you mentioned that you miss Zelsis and maybe you have Bozer, but I think that you have a new friend in this international tournament.
My new friend, Baby Bay, love the odds, huh?
They're just new friends here, yeah.
I think we should just leave.
We should just leave.
What is it like playing against the sixth man in Shanghai crowd?
Woo!
I mean, okay, okay, okay.
You gotta think about this.
We just came back from Brazil.
The Brazil had the sixth man crowd?
Well, I'm not seeing it right now, I'm not seeing it right now, but honestly he's not that bad
So I would say I'm gonna give it like a 6 out of 10 right now for the Shanghai crowd for Tyloo
Thank you
Hey guys, Mika here with JoshRT of G2.
Now, Shanghai has some history for G2, obviously, and that opening tease, that amazing opening
tease, Valen talked about what it was like losing in front of a crowd that's not like
similar to this.
So I'm curious how those kind of thoughts affect the team, especially going into a match
like this, starting, you're starting to match here in champs, and whether that affects
them like negatively or positively?
I think it affects us very positively.
I mean, this is just like the perfect storybook ending
if we get it done here.
I mean, our first international under G2
was at Master Shanghai,
and we got a taste of the Mercedes-Benz Arena
and like playing in front of so many fans.
And ever since then,
like we've been chasing that ever since, you know?
So like, it only makes sense that we like step up
and, you know, try to like fulfill our potential here
and maybe close it out.
Playing out like a good story, am I right?
Yeah, good luck.
Well, it was a really close match, especially on the first half of this map, but we did see
Valin turn it around there, around round seven, but you can see Stufa, he's just working the
crowd.
And he's still working the crowd right now.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Like even now, like these are clips from during the game, but as we start playing
them, he's literally standing up and doing the same thing again, even after the defeat,
still playing it up.
Honestly, I was impressed with G2 not being fazed by that at all.
You know, if anything, I actually want to see some more of these highlights from BabyBae's end, which is impressive for him.
I want to see him standing up a bit more and kind of matching the energy.
But yeah, this was completely under G2's control the whole time.
I mean, do you believe that BabyBae and G2 work well against a crowd that isn't rooting for them?
I feel like I just saw a tweet that said something along the lines of,
It was a sports psychologist saying baby based superpower is that he can turn any negative into a positive and now that I think back on it
That's exactly what he does. Yeah every single time. Yeah, he's got he's got that good energy box
Now the rounds have no stock about Balin having a great moment that turned things around in the first half of this month
Yeah, there was it was a pretty sweet. There was some great shooting all across the board
I think from G to just having some really nice ones in the Verizon high-speed moment
Honestly, G2, the way they were shooting, they shocked me a little bit.
It was really nice stuff from them. You can check it out right here.
Actually, I believe we got Trent for this one.
Valon also had a clip. Trent smashed it here.
Quick on the branch for that second and third kill.
Devastates.
He reacted to his own clip in the middle of it, like right before he went for the 4K.
I'm pretty sure the comms we hear him reacting, because it was a listen in when this was going on.
But yeah, I mean, I mentioned what I want to see at a G2 is polished,
I think it's really nice. It's
really nice to see them win
this. But also something that
has been lacking for G2 has
been firepower. I feel like the
calls have still been great,
but they just failed to close
out those moments at the end.
Not this map, though, not at
all completely different and we
can see in the high speed
moment. Trent was owning. Yeah
and we're just talking about
Baby Bay. Look at our positive
guy for G2. I have to say G2
It's just literally you saw him hanging out with with a super.
Right before the game right getting that get in that
friendship going.
And immediately when they get into the server like if
that's like question market being like what do you do it
would be some of the clutch but it was still.
Baby they win out in the end now we have a chance to get
for some of the most famous chamber.
We're going to be and we're going to see that show
down between baby and slowly and I heard all the
slowly high and you know what I say.
Let's see it. Let's see it.
I think baby has been an extremely consistent and overlooked chamber in America's just by virtue of the fact that we have so many great ones, right?
I mean you look at I mean Livieton is not here
But you look at me on and he was so dominant and that's what we come to expect you look at Luke show
You know representing for loud here at champs and baby is still there for me in the top three
And he's playing against the best of China. So let's see it. Yeah for this first half for me
You're going to see baby they're running through mid pushing on different angles with the chamber
Tyloo need to solve that but Tyloo as well
I didn't get very creative with their sage walls and how they want to hit the different sides
You're gonna see a lot of sage walls up through mid cutting off that avenue to split
They just see multiple like two or three
Three plonged approaches into the B site cutting through both market as well as Tom in I think sage like her pick
like this and in general is
that she's kind of a pseudo
second controller, not in the
Viper sense where you can throw
up a line of wall and deny
complete information and look.
She's more of a second
controller in that you know
when you're coming out of
Valble, you're hitting the A
site and you need something
to cut off CT and your Omen
has one smoke, just wall it
off.
Yeah.
And it's just such a great
agent for this map because
there's so many opportunities
like you said to give
value to that.
It's a smoke that blocks
vision and also blocks any
moment.
It does everything.
dive into Sunset as you send it back to our casters, Uber and Wyatt.
The first international match in Tyloos history comes at the world
championship in their home country as China's number one seed, going up
against one of the most experienced campaigners in G2 when it comes to
global events. G2 just took liberties in that first map of the series,
And it was in the hands of BabyBang, ex-multi-game pro player, retired into Caster, into Returns
for G2, against Slowly, who only began his professional Valorant career in 2024, joins
up with Tyler, who he was previously competing with in a different FPS game.
And yet those two, with those unique stories, have found themselves leading either a team
Matching up on chamber, a crucial role on Sunset.
A BBB has been removed from the server immediately.
We knew they'd be looking to fight into mid though.
No surprises, both teams take their gentleman's duel.
There's the headhunterous floating that certainly left a mark.
Two-fact, gum down, help me open.
The G2 are the ones that we have to spread themselves
thinly over the map, conceding this mid.
Over the attackers.
The Valon has been a rat so far in this series, all the way from an unexpected angle, and
DRV gets the drop on this time around.
You really can't feel a bit of a difference in Valon's individual play, a bit frustrating
now.
Getting walled off just has to take his time breaking this while the rest of the
team work their way over.
I'm planning though to get eyes on him.
Jor and Trent though need to salvage here and slowly has got a
stately position to drop him but he gives himself away Jor has to fight the 1v3.
Jor will draw him out of the open and Trent
knocks him down a peg
once again
G2 starts shorthanded on a pistol and turn it around. That's a
stunning last little shot from Trent, you can see on his face he did not believe
that he hit that. No HP to work with. Just a quick little jiggle peek. Any
closest to that with a headshot. That was ridiculous. G2 have made some
miracles happen. On the crucial pistol rounds, just continue the pain for
Tyloo. I mean, I've got the pedigree, it's been the trajectory that have made their critics
a bit concerned over the last few weeks and months. So, Father, what for a dream start
on a map that Tyloo has not lost in stage two? Got a 6-0 record here. And that is
off the back of slowly. His chambered numbers here are ridiculous. 185 average damage per
That's unbelievable insane tracking there from jaw so he tries to follow the prowler on
Sure shows he's got a bit of mobility bizarre and got to be it the boy get a bit of shmovement going
Due to the anti eco pretty comfortable
Walking to the bonus with all of those weapons maintained
Unfortunately, they're for Tyloo in this specific matchup
It is a little bit awkward with the map because you want to be playing Sunset like you are going to be taking G2
To the maps where they don't have to play a double duelist.
It is not a must play in the meta.
And that is where G2 are going to be at their best.
And Tyloo's advantage would be able to,
would be on maps where they're able to play a double duelist
and force G2 into it,
where they just have the advantage
because they're more comfortable with it.
This makes sense given the texture
of this weaponry for G2.
Babybay gets inserted in mid.
Babybay lobes to walk down and tuck at that box there.
He does it constantly.
The door getting toggled is hilarious, but Tyler has seen this before.
Looks like they've been watching the VODs.
I've been plenty in chambers going for that,
but I don't think any of them deal with the frequency that Baby Bay does.
Just loves that little position specifically.
You know, with that rendezvous,
he's not committed to me, but that door comes down.
That is all part of the ruse.
Once again, Jor, Katelyn, second to the punch.
Chastity if you're on Albuquerque, get away, it's Talu now.
Capitalizing on somebody, slip ups.
Smooth sailing so far in their first buy.
So far doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Fight plenty.
Should be able to close this one out with these,
maybe even walk away getting the res for scales.
Really impressive splash so far.
Now that we're onto Sunset,
The Neon's playground kind of map can expect that Splash is going to have opportunities
to take over for the scene.
Not long ago, he was just a fixture on the RQ Academy team, like a splash there for Trent
and he was able to take a trade.
No Scales is going to be hiding behind the box.
What a fight to get another weapon out of Tyloos Hens.
Just one more.
The Chinese squad stand their ground and get themselves on the board.
scone himself. More than enough kills to have the res active into the next five round.
Tau Lu are able to continue to deny baby bay when he's just walking up taking liberties
running around that rendezvous. I feel like they might try and do it again this round.
It's going to be a major advantage for them on this attack side.
This dude is so active in his early stages.
Really staked their claim now to that one-way corner.
BabyBake gets his pound of flesh before he's gone,
but I was expecting the second guy and the pincer connects.
Leaf and Jor working either side.
Worked their way in and Scales doesn't really have a leg to stand on.
All the force back in the doldrums.
Gaster Tyler would have to get out to the races properly.
That is G2 just completely switching off the pace on Tyler.
Scales, no hope.
Immediate crunch down A through Tyler's in mid.
And Tyler are just not expecting this secondary peak.
Leaf comes in, gets the free one.
I don't know, trio fight from the front.
It's just so easy when you have that neon slide, just rubbed across hairs,
and the second guy can swing out off the back, if he drank it's the free one.
It's a great little pinch play.
That second go peek...
It's an option for you because normally you're putting someone with baby bait to insert him,
and then fall back off that line.
But Lee said no.
There's an opportunity here for me to decimate that he was right.
Elementary, my dear Watson, that it's a Baby Bay classic opener.
They don't expect Valon and Jor to be taking up residence here.
G2 leading it properly now, and the LV is struggling to catch on the Jor.
This really does feel like them playing with that freedom as Baby Bay characterised it.
going as far as to say even in the press conference that knowing that this might just very well
be their last ride, that's like playing with a superpower that other teams have to fear
them because they can just play carefree, they can enjoy living in the moment in what
might be some of the last moments in this team's history.
Yeah, you can see the value for this G2 team have ascribed to each one of those moments
out on the stage.
I feel like that's how they walked into the room with a reverence for the sport, for
the opportunity to really feel a different energy as soon as you saw them.
The way that they were interacting with each other on stage, the hugs before Josh
Shaq went off back to the coaching booth, it was a different vibe.
Conway's win condition is a bit of a grim sign here for Twiloo. Fair enough not
went to the pistol. Able to take that gun round conversion but very quickly
gonna be reset back down. It's gotta do something to control G2's fluidity, their
freedom and how they're fighting in the mid. It looks like they've read into a
couple of tendencies from the defenders right? They know that they
never gets left in mid. Inserted. The door gets dropped down.
Of course Jaws friend Jaws everywhere with him these days and they have been to many a locale
G2 are saying hey Tyler if you want to take your time on attack again like you did on Lotus
We don't have any time to waste. We'll be right down there fighting you at the choke points
Look at this
Slowly unaware, but he's about to find out.
Proper good, sliding in there for Jordan.
He's caught out Valin though, having to catch slowly.
The rendezvous didn't take him far enough from the action.
Behind this Valin was to walk back potentially toward his own smoke.
The res now comes out.
Look at this in the meantime, Leaf is just trying to find some kind of overwind lane.
I think it's a really lovely isolated 1v1 kill onto ERV. No smokes aren't offering for
Tyloo. They have to execute into one of these sites just vulnerable to every single angle
imaginable.
Tyloo being forced to open the wall for every inch of ground they get on this map.
Heavy tolls being levied at the Horrentown squad. Valor will take his. Dran tries
to step into that fast lane but it's going to be the new team. Rest slowly getting
Oh my goodness, that is filth! Filth!
And Pac-Offity falls, it's on scales!
Leif just wants to kick a nuisance by a bit of time here!
Can't quite get the frag, but Scales forced a skitter away whilst being killed.
And baby-bay is circling like a vulture!
Wisens!
Takes a bit more damage than the other way, would have liked.
This 1v1 is something he's got to play very carefully, playing with fire.
Scales trying to draw him out of position and this is a wily old Foxy's dealing with someone who's been around the book a couple of times and he pours a hole in Scales head.
Baby Bay has been coming up in the clutch situations for the team. He's driving their energy.
Still is so much for them, when you hate to be Tyloo heading into this tournament, first
outing a champion, so you were going up against a G2 that have arrived at this stage in a different
form, with a different mentality than they've ever had before, and you were feeling it in
the way that they are playing these rounds out, in the way that individually they are
expressing confidence.
confidence. There it's in the
mid-round walking down finds ERV and then
suddenly time to go because I have no
smoke so it's just so awkward.
Everybody's committed here but I'm gonna do a degree.
Run over gives another crack at it and G2
been searching all gear for this
identity all year for this perfect fit.
Who would have thought they may have started to find it?
Once they're back, he's up against the wall.
And this level of pressure, the vice group applied from G2
is not going to ease up when they have four ultimates available
for this buy round.
Interlopers en masse through market.
Giving themselves away, having to clear that trade.
Markets Valon up a little bit too slow to catch him on the cross,
but Bebe Bay's already in position.
Sees the slide, splash.
Jeff Jiggen with a now slide in the corner.
Valon is there to step up.
And the rendezvous has popped. G2 coming out of him in waves.
Spike now is going to make his way over towards the side.
Sealed by trying to break them open in the back.
It's a stunning headshot. Correction on jaw.
Trandall is the stabilizer. The even keel for G2.
But quite a job to do now, but slowly.
There's a second bite of the apple and almost is punished for it.
A walk up shows himself a little bit too much leg shot and Trent with eight bullets left.
Realizes he can wait.
Slowly she's doing too much. She wants to close the round out himself
But now it's in the hands of Sufa flash here for Trent, but he might not need it walk up
He knows you see the gun
Smooth sailing
This G2 navigate another rocky reef
Tyler just simply cannot afford to keep plowing rounds like that to slip out of their grasp
They have it in the palm of their hand, but they just cannot stabilize in the critical late-round moments.
It's going to be a time-out, surely.
After that Red Bull clutch.
Let's see it played out yet again.
At what point does the mental just give when you're losing these back-to-back clutches?
Also, it's G2. It's the kind of team that can sort of give you that feeling of despair.
feeling of despair can feel so oppressive, suffocating in moments like this, you can't
baby base have got to play Valorant into that situation, right, and Splash is sliding in,
baby base just run the voos out and Valorant is waiting, always in position to punish.
You have speed man.
Hey, huh?
What is he talking, what is bro referring to?
I think he's referring to the fact that he slowly kind of shows himself, pushing
up on that angle.
You're trying to do the most, like you said,
took two shots over Trent, gets up on another corner.
They have to spike down.
Like, Tyler, you are just might be in need of, yeah,
a moment like this to hear from the coaches.
Like, guys, you can let the game come to you.
A reminder, yeah, can play off of each other.
Let's bring it back to the fundamentals.
Work as a team in that situation, right?
Work together.
It is not going to come down to any one player
to be able to beat G2. It is a team effort required and you can never give little errors
like that, exploitable errors on offer to G2. You will be punished 100% of the time.
It may be worse than any other team to go up against and expose those errors. That's
just got to be a mental timeout right there. Listen, it's still only 6-1. The game is
still early. Tyloo can bounce back. This is their 6-0 map pick. Feels alright, like right now to some
extent they are just up against themselves. They need to play like themselves and not let the situation,
not let the pressure get to them. Haunt to force baby bay off the line that gives ERV
deep coverage in the mid. Tyloo might be positioned for their first split on this attack side.
Got to bid-day.
Throw it towards A again.
Trento's going to fall back off this now.
He is all of it.
He's very quickly trying to get back to safety.
Link up at his teammate now.
Battle's going to wall deal with it.
This 9-4 comes through.
Only catches on to Link though.
Trent can still hear.
Diabolical TP in there by Gallipoli.
Just getting caught on the cross.
Trento's going to play the spike.
He can't rotate in.
Oh my god, they're just towards the shreds.
Lin from Lin.
You cannot let Trent do that to you.
Trent is taking first contact in that round.
He sees Tyloo push out mid.
He just falls back into spawn, right through his chance.
Gets another three-piece.
The guy's 13 and two.
Spike down eight.
Just doing the little things right there.
Just setting up that quick high low.
Tyloo on the cross.
They're just devastated.
They can't deal with that.
There's no sage wall
because that was used to try and screen you at top mid.
Yeah, to go, yeah, to actually get into that split.
So if Alan got walled off, he just TP's in the elbow on the A side.
It's brutal, man.
The G2 have no regard for human life.
They will not be easy up there,
just straight into the aggro B play
with the wall that someone could get on top of,
and they get the nice little free kill on slowly.
Get into the five on four.
Why not another for Trent?
Everything is going G2's way.
This has been a devastating map.
Bring your guardian every RV, but not a lot to hang your hat on elsewhere for Tyloo.
So far this feels like a map that is just kind of bringing us back to the reality.
The other is Tyloo team outside of Sufa. They are new to a stage like this,
new to experiencing the pressure of being a champion, the pressure of playing in front of
your home crowd thousands here in Shanghai for the first time in this kind of situation.
And it feels like it's getting to them against the G2.
Carefree as they have ever been.
Can't get a more stark contrast than that.
But G2 at this point know better than to celebrate prematurely when they draw a Chinese team.
They know they've got to have the wits about them coming into an event like this.
But you can see the work they've put in.
It's all the old things that G2 fans love about their team.
Including the same buzzwords, buzzphrases, if you will.
But Tyloo looks shaking and giving a little bit too much for free.
Easy pickings there for baby bay.
That is your over and out of the picture.
How did Tyloo salvage this?
I'm going to use the Dynamics CT
It's coming
D-Bush up there
I'm going down
D-Bush, go for the high-heel
Dynamics CT
Dynamics CT
CT
Behind the road
There's a guy in the wall, he's shooting at the smoke
Where's the smoke?
Behind the wall
Where?
Behind the wall
I'm going to use the Dynamics CT
CT, where are you?
Nice
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Crowd started to believe it
The G2 had a wealth of extra players to throw in front of him and they got off the wheels that one a lot more
more impossible than the Maya clutches the title players found themselves in.
But still you chalk it up to another one going the way of G2.
They have been able to close out the late rounds with consistency and dominate the map early
in the rounds with a willingness to just consistently go for these very aggro, util combo plays.
The pinch is down mid, the fight into A main, the fight into B main, they're always
just doing something active, something disruptive until it's time for the anti-eco and what
If we just relax, gonna kick our feet up, chill over at Elba.
This map is starting to get out of hand.
Tyler again knocked down two pistols.
And yes, G2R capitalizing.
They're taking liberty.
He's your, he wants to fight.
He'll have four on the round.
So much money, such a bank to work with.
As we'll go for the EUFRAG.
sure didn't take him long to turn up here in Shanghai. But for me, Trent has been the
story for G2. Absolutely. This just really has been Trent's here. Highs, lows, anything
in between for G2. He has been the most consistent factor. One of the best years of his career,
period. But if the genre we're getting right now on Sunset is indicative of the level
of play that he is going to be bringing consistently in this tournament, that is
It's the kind of factor that can make G2 a serious contender.
And everyone's minds in a tournament where, for the first time,
people weren't viewing them as a serious contender.
You've been up there off the back of the weakest America stage
that they have ever had.
They're the fourth seed from a region
that they have dominated domestically.
You know what their tongue is now, bro?
It's choked.
Yeah, it's choked.
When he's starting to feel himself, George is running it down in that round, up to 14 and 7, up to 12.
Last round, off the half, opportunity for Tyloo to save some face and give themselves a foothold, but I'm not going to mince words.
It's going to be an uphill battle for China's number one seed.
They are just rattled.
If you're slowly, you've got to be scared to press up.
They could be running it down at you, but it's a one-for-one in mid that results in an advantage for Tyloo off the rezz.
Stoley always in motion, always on the move, and baby bait steps into the challenge.
Brooming with confidence, there's only a team up 9 rounds, could...
Guess you're waiting on the line that the slide catches and breaks the crosshair placement, and Sivvats' aim holds true.
He could have been asking the baby bait, he's not able to fall off of it, now under extreme pressure, but Trent can pick this one up here from main.
He doesn't have the angle on Splash though.
Help is on the way here for Tripp, but it's a ways off still.
He's knocked down to his last legs, and Valon will have to get active.
It's gonna be in the LGL. If he wants G2 to take 11 out of this half.
Paranoia's still here to work with, but Tyloo are grouped up.
Settle it back to the site to the RV.
See the enemy caller coming. That is an 8 round gap, but still some face-safe for Tyloo in this last round of the half.
Moore from Sunset just around the corner. It's a 6-0 map in stage shift for Tyloo.
They've got some serious work to do.
The city of law becomes the city of these they plunder they pilfer and they persevere in Paris
I mean, it's insane. I got to cast, you know, hearing all the fans and now I'm gonna be on the stage hearing them from that point of
You and I know how crazy the fans are here. Jio. Let's go. It's gonna be insane. Let's go
All right, it's gonna be so insane seeing this guy up on that stage
G2's resume guarantees them respect.
The recent forum guarantees nothing, Valorant Champions?
Everything is earned.
Good start for them here off against Tai Lu. A very dominant first half on Sunset.
As their opponents look to be struggling to find their ceilings.
Over the course of the last year and a half, Tai Lu have been able to piece together a roster,
one member at a time that is capable of winning that stage two in China.
But within that roster building, they dipped into Academy talent, tier two talent,
Inexperienced players that have a lot to offer, but here on the biggest stage with all of the pressure
They are crumbling in the face of G2
On max end of minute getting messy slowly not giving a chance to slip away its flash who emerges from the corner finds two
Gotta be more where that came from really level no connection eventually
He's gonna be run down and scale steps up to the plate
But it's a disastrous result for the defenders
Both pistols here on sunset lost
It's got Shred just putting up an obscene stat line.
He is headed towards this could be some kind of record breaker.
We might be there already, but he's got to be damn close to something.
I don't know what it is, but kills four deaths.
14 rounds of play.
We did it.
Other spray.
Yep.
Yep, yep.
The vibes are up.
Tyloo are not going for the force here, just the pistols.
Interesting time for them to choose to be restrained, I've got to say.
Effectively allowing G2 to match point, except they do catch Valon.
That both banded is pretty damn good to be fair.
Lastly done, though. Splash played into that A main encounter.
It's Omen off the table first.
Valon's got plenty of time to practice that dance.
Okay, some damage being put down by baby. They forced the rendezvous from slowly, but it'll be topped up by his Sate.
G2 at deep though. Do they check the Sulfat here in this position? Classic rings out some damage down.
It's gonna be forced away. Relay Bolt comes in.
Jaw respects this now. There is so much healing for this G2 side.
And a double heal actually paying off and
Guardian on the angle against the pistols is just too OP.
Gee, slowly in scales, both knocked low.
How do they break back in?
Yumi's going to come up with a smoke, but it's a bit of a time to abuse it.
Jaw up, up on the line, healthy, credit.
Rumble!
Yumi collapses!
Match point for G2, a dream start potentially to their campaign here in Shanghai.
The first chapter of Tyloo on the global stage has been an absolute trial by fire
up against a fearless G2.
A G2 that have second top eight global finishes.
And might just be playing with the most confidence,
the most carefree attitude that we've ever seen from them.
At any tournament period,
I think it's hard to argue against that, honestly.
It doesn't get tougher for Tyloo on their debut.
So Tyloo saving in their previous rounds,
not going for the force.
Put all their eggs in this round, 15 basket.
G2 already wending their way in the middle of the map.
Looking for a split here towards that B-side of Jor, it gets active.
Gonna carve out some space on the map, slowly wins out that little periphery fight.
It's unclear if that's gonna amount to much, but Splash has also struck at the heart of G2.
And Jor stopped into his tracks.
Oh, Trekkai, snappy stuff.
And that's even at the round all of a sudden.
It's all on the table for G2.
Our trend might be the last player on earth in Valorant or any FPS game that you really want to be taking an aim duel against right now, isolated 1v1.
This is rare form, even for one of the world's best at all time initiators.
And the Seekers tell him everything needs to know.
He knows Tyloo's last two are grouped up.
He knows they're on the defender side of the map.
He knows exactly where to have his gun trained.
And now he and his IGL are going to get back to back and try to get him back.
take the fight but it's slowly cuts him down on his own. What a time to come alive.
Tyloo was still in this. Finally able to make his mark on this map with the two
piece slowly keeps them alive hanging on by a thread by the slimmest of margins.
with that first line of a close-out two-game.
It is a costly round for a Tyloo that needs a lot of room to start to feel confident.
G2 have nine match points.
What?
So again, you certainly don't get ahead of yourselves in spots like this.
Even the coaches can't believe that
Slowly was able to just to plow them over.
And he can't be comfortable.
The way G2 were playing against any arsenal, any five weapons they have, the shots they're hitting.
Feels like it might as well just be a full bar every single time. What difference does it make?
Scales waits to be tested.
Spots baby, baby again. Maybe not the weapon.
To get a clean kill and get out
Does wall that off, but that means he has to leave go pick up mid because the wall is doubled up on the trip
If no information if someone on G2 could have been lurking through
That's why there's this pretty dedicated a side push as well
Scales that was in the right spot
But that door gets dropped
Slowly starting to pull back on the board that B side now his main is gonna be opened up by G2
And Tyloo really putting emphasis on controlling A and I is going to funnel G2 over towards the B side,
but they have not activated a quick rotate to support slowly. He is going to have to, on his lonesome,
come up with a significant plate. Doesn't even have a rendezvous. He's committed to this position,
but he does have the ability to retreat to market.
Wall's gonna fall slowly out of the fight. Nothing to be done here.
This means that Tyloo just opt immediately into retake protocols. G2 are underarmed in this round.
Bandit, two classics, two Guardians.
And the difference in utility is immense, but maybe they find the opening.
Don't forget the headhunter. That's a big pick up over towards the midside.
Tentatively, slowly wants to itch his way forward,
they really want to catch the other way.
Oh my goodness, surely not.
The other down to seven, flashed into oblivion,
it's on the scales.
Looking for some justice for the uncertain future for G2 Kid Wait.
They still have unfinished business in the present.
A score to settle with the rest of the world in Shanghai.
This first global chapter for a Tyler was contrasted by what very may well be Cheetah's last chapter.
Everything that they've been through together, a team defined by brotherhood, trend, valent,
deciding to stick together, not go to partnership, go through ascension, run the gauntlet,
together for all of these years. The one thing that this team has not been able to do together yet
is get that global glory, reach a trophy internationally. This might just be their
last chance. It's the last chance in this valiant era. But they were playing with a
carefree attitude. They're making it look effortless. They're savoring every moment that they have
left together. The last memories that are going to be making here as a team of champions.
Tyler Borojic's into this match with China's strength here at GT remind them how heavy
a crowned head can be. They know all about domestic success that doesn't quite translate
onto the international stage. They've lived that dream of nightmare, should I say, many times before.
But the core of this team is back here in Shanghai. Valem Trent, Lee Josh RT,
unfinished business from 2024. A chance to seek redemption and perhaps something more.
They've never seen what's on the other side of that horizon. They've never had a chance
to take the podium on their own. They aren't the fourth seat from America's but they
start brilliantly. Let's head down to Verizon, post-smatch interview at the stage.
Hello, Baby Bay. We need you for the interview.
Hello, hello. Could you give me a couple minutes for the interview? Okay, compared to on-screen today.
Before, actually, because you mentioned it during the interview, it might be the last year of many people's G2,
but this will also bring you some extra power.
So, today, you won your own gold medal. Will you also win these games and bring some extra power?
And you mentioned earlier this champs that this could be the final dance for some of you and it's giving you the super power
So that's winning this first match give you any extra motivation?
Yeah, 100% we were looking forward to trying to win this match the most because we
Sometimes start slow in tournaments and I feel like that's like downfall that we have as a team
But we understood how strong Tylee was as a team and we prepped really hard for them
But they they fought hard as well. It was really hard
They really want to win the Shanghai tournament.
For the team, they may have some hot weather.
So, they have prepared for today's tournament.
They know that Tian Lu is a strong team.
So, they have to be prepared.
And Tian Lu's reaction today is very intense.
This is a very exciting tournament.
We saw that Tian Lu was behind in the Lianhua Valley.
Because they released the Lianhua Valley, which is a good place for G2.
And on Lotus, your opponents clearly came prepared.
They left the map open, and this is one of your strongest maps.
And brought out a new chamber comp.
You said you really want to go up against Slowly this time.
So how does it feel today?
Oh my gosh, Slowly is one of the most insane maps in the world.
I think it's the best map in the world.
I think it's the best map in the world.
Oh my gosh, Loli is one of the most insane players, I think mechanically.
He's so fast. There were so many times in the game, even on the first map, second map, where I had no chance.
It was like, it was crazy. So, I mean, I had a lot of support to deal with him, and it was really good,
but we got good training partners back in America, you know, loud plays that comp, so we were prepared to play against that on Lotus.
He said that it's very difficult for the players to play against this map, because it's a very fast map, and it has a very strong ability.
We need to be prepared for this, and there will be some mistakes.
But for this, because they had a very good training against Lao Zi in the US, and they had some experience in the US.
I'm sure BBB knows how much Chinese fans like him.
How do you feel about him?
And you've seen how crazy the Chinese fans are for you.
And what do you think of the atmosphere here?
And how are the Chinese fans?
I love the Shanghai fans, the Chinese fans. You're amazing.
Jio! Everybody here, Jio!
This was such an insane game.
I can't wait to keep playing more games here.
Thank you, thank you so much for saying that.
He said, I really, really like Shanghai,
I like the fans here.
Finally, I told everyone from China,
I'm really, really looking forward to fighting here.
Thank you, baby base.
Thank you for the interview.
And now you can go back to the audience.
And it's a 2-0 win for G2.
And we're joined by Coach Josh R.T.
Congratulations winning the very first match today for you guys. I think it's been pretty cool now
I have to say you guys ended stage two in America's with a lot of concerned fans with questions now
You guys have to oh against Tai Lu today and I all your players have been saying like we're just gonna have fun
We're just gonna vibe. It's our last champions together
Is that all there is to it like surely you guys have been working on some stuff before coming here to Shanghai?
Oh, yeah 100% I mean
Yeah, like it is what it is and I think for many teams actually it's gonna be their last chance
Like at least like with the roster today that we're all seeing together
And so I mean we routine that's kind of fate like how to face reality quickly and just understood like hey
It is what it is and I afraid it with with the boys like we want to end on the great note
I mean we work so hard all year and for some of us many many years
And then it's only it's only fair that we try our very best and so it's kind of a mix like we're saying like yeah
Like screw to screw that like it's we're gonna just go out with a bang
But I know my boys they're competitive
They're gonna always try their best and they're doing everything possible to make this like the best chance possible
Are you guys making any specific adaptations for this tournament though? That's different than how you guys normally play?
I
Mean there's always an adaptation. There's it's always different each international
I always try to like iterate and improve on the process and and for this like I think it's all culminating together
I was very happy with how we adjusted to the Shanghai time zone
How we went about practice. I feel like the form was great
I mean like shout to some of my guys just taking over like when we're bleeding a little bit in the beginning
We noticed that we're down like two four Val came up huge in the front B fight
Yeah, 2k plus
jaw with the op and he was you know he had a cold start it wasn't really going
for him but you know it just takes one it takes one round to get into the game
and like we that kind of like proved to ourselves like yeah we got it man we got
it like the previous routes were kind of lifting I press you about a specific
macro adjustment like normally I don't want to expose the subtleties you know
I know you've got the rest of your tournament but I feel like this was so
like intentional that you could anyone could see you guys were playing
and hyper aggressive on your defense.
Normally you guys are a team that like,
you know when to bunker down,
but it seems to catch off Tyloo time and time again
because that just isn't Yall's play style.
Like I've watched so many of Yall's vlogs just,
you know, as the IGO.
Is my assessment correct there?
Like that was very intentional.
Like you guys were coming into that with this game plan.
I mean, big credit to Valon, Jake to make that,
like continue calling that way.
It was a game plan approach of like,
hey, like we don't want to have them push pull us
have many many steps against us and they're they're a team that plays really
slow and if you just let them have all this map control it's gonna be kind of
annoying to play I mean slowly we'll get in for like in place and so we fat
we'll call call all like circles around us so I mean I I didn't think it would
be that many rounds in a row but I mean it was a lot this is like kind of like
the mentality we're having like we just got a play to win and it is like
I said could be our last champs just we got to increase the variance a
little bit so that we can capture some of the upside and like we did it here and
I'm happy about it. I love seeing this new look on you guys it adds a lot of
variance for other teams trying to anti-strike like what kind of G2 are gonna
get that dare are they gonna be disrupting your defaults like yo leaks
walking down mid on stage what you guys are gonna be main pick bro I love to see
it bro. It's like I'm seeing like a NB scrim bro you know I mean you guys
have scrimmed NB I loved it from you guys I hope to see it some more. Yeah I
mean hopefully we can do the same against BRX but you know that's like
kind of their style so you know we'll see how it goes um i mean it's gonna be fireworks it's not
gonna be the same g2 as before i know uh they're they're kind of expecting to like walk us over and
like uh like kill baby bay on the chamber and everything to buy with like gladly take that
matchup for the game yeah but they want they they're like we've been wanting this matchup we
wanted fear exit btl because like what's our history with tl right there's no right there's no
Yeah, exactly.
Let's be honest.
Exactly.
It's going to be fun.
There's one guy on your team who's awesome with popping off and gotten us in awe.
It's Trent, especially during this.
He's had a couple of moments like this of these incredible portrays.
Yeah, I mean the composure and the poise that he exhibits at this stage of his career,
it's so incredible to see.
Yeah, yeah.
And like, I mean, he was just a standout performer for this whole year.
I think I think he's the best initiator bar none. So um, I'm glad that he's able to show it
I know a lot of people duck on our sky, but hey, it allows plays like this
He's able to dissect them. He's he's able to be aggressive. He's able to play slow like he's pretty complete as a player. So
Very happy for him
His game iq was on display in that club too where he I love when players are in the middle of a clutch
They get some two kills and then they just back up and freeze and they let the last guy just like
faster and overthink you you break outside of the raft and it's like I
feel like players win that so often when they let that uncertainty creep into the
other person's mind yeah it's like creating gaps you know it's funny like
we actually had the wrong read so I mean as a coach I saw I knew it was to the
right because why would the chamber peak like that I think one of the dead
commerce said like oh he's going to the left I'm like no no no he's got to
be to the right so I think Trent like eventually figured it out and then
This quickly assumed he's gonna be close right got him in and out. Hey, I'll take those
Well, let's take a look at where things stand right now in group C
You know paper X want today as well
They also have a pretty good initiator on their side in the form of in B
And it sounds like you're already like this just ended and you're already planning for paper
You're playing for paper X yesterday. It sounds like hey, we've been wanting this matchup for a while
I mean they've been knocking us out and I mean like they're so good
And so it's only it's only fair that we want this kind of challenge, right?
If we can beat them I feel like we can take it all but you know game by game and I mean if I always said to the boys
Like we don't beat pure X. We're never gonna win in a national
I should want to see who's gonna do the sage be wall first. Is it gonna be? Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah, that was straight for their strap. Oh, like it's really called pure XP. So
It would be great if you ended up using it against them.
Yeah, we're just all looking up.
Like, the second we see this.
Like, you'll hold the B main wall, guys.
Yeah, yeah.
You have one guy steady for it, anti-B main.
I want to see both of you guys end up doing it.
Now, tomorrow's schedule is going
to be really exciting as well.
We got Nong Shim, Red Force Basing Energy,
and of course, Carmencorp, Basing XLG.
How are you feeling about these matchups tomorrow?
Do you have any scrim bucks you got for this?
I can't say the scrim bucks, but I love that first game.
There's a couple maps for each team that they're really good at, so I think it'll go with three maps, the Energy Nongshim game.
XLG, KC, KC looks incredible. I love their style of play. A lot of chamber use, a lot of mid-rounding, and letting the players play and figure it out.
I'm very curious to how XLG will play against that kind of style. We have a lot of respect for XLG, of course.
They knocked us out and we deserve that.
So I want to see a very improved XLG
to take on the best of EMA.
And yeah, I think it'll be three maps as well.
I don't know which way we'll go.
So once it goes three maps, it feels like 50-50.
As a coach, you always want three maps.
If there's more footage for you, you get to see three more.
We're just worried about our group.
We got PRX.
My hands are full right now.
Yeah, you're pretty wild.
But you're right.
I think these teams are going to match really well
against each other.
tomorrow and Mel will definitely dive more into that.
Thank you so much for your time, Josh,
and congrats on the very first win of the tournament
for you guys.
That's all for a month here in Champions Shanghai.
We'll see you tomorrow for more VCT.
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